# weaveworks/footloose

Container Machines - Containers that look like Virtual Machines

Repository: https://github.com/weaveworks/footloose
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/footloose
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: docker, containers, virtual-machine, vm
Archived: true
Last push: 2023-08-29T13:44:17+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2772, "days_push": 1100, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1583, forks 117 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:07.197983+00:00)

## What it is
Footloose is a Go CLI tool that creates Docker containers configured to behave like virtual machines, running systemd as PID 1 with an SSH daemon for login. It is described as 'Vagrant, but with containers', enabling fast-booting, lightweight machine clusters defined in a footloose.yaml config file.

## Use cases
- spin up vm-like containers for local testing
- create fast-booting test machines instead of vms
- run a local multi-node cluster for kubernetes experiments
- test systemd services in isolated containers
- vagrant alternative using docker containers
- run docker-in-docker for integration testing
- provision many lightweight machines quickly for development

## When to choose
- you need many fast-booting vm-like environments for local development or testing
- you want a vagrant-like workflow but with container speed
- you need systemd and ssh inside containers to simulate real machines

## When to avoid
- you need real virtual machines with kernel isolation
- you want an actively maintained tool - the project is deprecated in favor of Flintlock
- you need production infrastructure provisioning rather than local test machines

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: abandoned
- function: developer-tools, cli, container-runtime
- domain: developer-tools
- platform: cli, go
- tags: vagrant-alternative, systemd-containers, vm-like-containers, docker, deprecated, local-cluster, ssh, containers, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- weaveworks/footloose (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:07.197983+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:56:07.797620+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/weaveworks/footloose (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:07.197983+00:00, sha 5aedd048ba3e)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.