# ottomatica/slim

Build and run tiny vms from Dockerfiles. Small and sleek.

Repository: https://github.com/ottomatica/slim
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/ottomatica-slim
Language: JavaScript
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: docker, micro-vm, virtualization
Last push: 2023-03-06T16:56:39+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2713, "days_push": 1276, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2129, forks 54 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:17.042339+00:00)

## What it is
Slim is a Node.js CLI tool that builds tiny, fast-booting virtual machine images from Dockerfiles. It extracts a rootfs, kernel, and initrd from a Docker build and packages them into raw, VHD, or other VM image formats.

## Use cases
- build a tiny VM image from a Dockerfile
- create bootable VM images for Hyper-V or QEMU
- make minimal Alpine RAM-only VMs
- generate cloud-init enabled Ubuntu VM images
- run lightweight micro VMs on Apple Silicon Macs

## When to choose
- you want VM images defined with familiar Dockerfile syntax
- you need small, fast-booting micro VMs with limited resource usage
- you want to reuse Docker build tooling to produce kernel/rootfs/initrd artifacts

## When to avoid
- you need full container orchestration rather than VM image building
- you require actively maintained tooling with recent releases
- you want standard Docker containers instead of real VMs

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: container-runtime, build-tool, developer-tools
- domain: cloud-computing, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cli
- tags: micro-vm, dockerfile, virtualization, vm-images, cloud-init, rootfs, containers, devops, linux, macos, nodejs, docker

## Member repositories
- ottomatica/slim (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:17.042339+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 2026-08-30T02:52:25.382492+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/ottomatica/slim (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:17.042339+00:00, sha 2e6ad47092d9)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.