lima-vm/lima

Linux virtual machines, with a focus on running containers observed · 2026-08-28

github.com/lima-vm/lima · homepage · Go · Apache-2.0 (permissive) observed · 2026-08-28

Health v2 · maintenance only

97/100

Activity 99
Release rhythm 94
Longevity 100

How is this computed?

round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-03. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.

gap_med: 18
age_days: 1937
days_rel: 43
days_push: 8
n_releases_24m: 24

Full methodology

Adoption not part of the score

21764 stars · 945 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded

Lima is a CLI tool that launches Linux virtual machines on macOS, Linux, and other hosts with automatic file sharing and port forwarding, similar to WSL2. It was originally built to run containerd and nerdctl on Mac but also supports Docker, Podman, Kubernetes, and general non-container Linux workloads.

Use cases

run linux vms on mac
run docker containers on macos
run containers with containerd and nerdctl
local kubernetes cluster on mac
wsl2 alternative for macos
test linux commands on a mac
run linux on arm or intel hosts

When to choose

you need lightweight Linux VMs on macOS with automatic file sharing and port forwarding
you want to run containerd, Docker, Podman, or Kubernetes locally on a Mac
you want a free open-source alternative to Docker Desktop or WSL2

When to avoid

you need to run Windows or macOS guests as first-class supported workloads
you need a GUI-first VM manager rather than a CLI-driven workflow
you only need containers on a Linux host where containers run natively without a VM

Facets

cli-tool · maturity active

container-runtime developer-tools cli developer-tools cross-platform cli cross-platform virtual-machines qemu containerd wsl2-alternative docker kubernetes cncf virtualization containers macos linux

6 sources

readme: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima · fetched 2026-08-28 · 6ebee568db06
homepage: https://lima-vm.io/ · fetched 2026-08-29 · 3a1bf9264b79
site_page: https://lima-vm.io/docs · fetched 2026-08-29 · 89d72a293140
site_page: https://lima-vm.io/docs/community · fetched 2026-08-29 · 5439bfe4031c
site_page: https://lima-vm.io/docs/installation · fetched 2026-08-29 · 6708dcfc4fac
site_page: https://lima-vm.io/docs/usage · fetched 2026-08-29 · dbf6718ea6f7

Member repositories

Repository	Role	Health v2
lima-vm/lima	main	97

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="lima-vm/lima")

Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem