Show HN: Lume 0.2 – Build and Run macOS VMs with unattended setup

Hey HN, Lume is an open-source CLI for running macOS and Linux VMs on Apple Silicon. Since launch (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42908061), we've been using it to run AI agents in isolated macOS environments. We needed VMs that could set themselves up, so we built that.

Here's what's new in 0.2:

*Unattended Setup* – Go from IPSW to a fully configured VM without touching the keyboard. We built a VNC + OCR system that clicks through macOS Setup Assistant automatically. No more manual setup before pushing to a registry:

  lume create my-vm --os macos --ipsw latest --unattended tahoe

You can write custom YAML configs to set up any macOS version your way.

*HTTP API + Daemon* – A REST API on port 7777 that runs as a background service. Your scripts and CI pipelines can manage VMs that persist even if your terminal closes:

  curl -X POST localhost:7777/lume/vms/my-vm/run -d '{"noDisplay": true}'

*MCP Server* – Native integration with Claude Desktop and AI coding agents. Claude can create, run, and execute commands in VMs directly:

  # Add to Claude Desktop config
  "lume": { "command": "lume", "args": ["serve", "--mcp"] }
    
  # Then just ask: "Create a sandbox VM and run my tests"

*Multi-location Storage* – macOS disk space is always tight, so from user feedback we added support for external drives. Add an SSD, move VMs between locations:

  lume config storage add external-ssd /Volumes/ExternalSSD/lume
  lume clone my-vm backup --source-storage default --dest-storage external-ssd

*Registry Support* – Pull and push VM images from GHCR or GCS. Create a golden image once, share it across your team.

We're seeing people use Lume for: - Running Claude Code in an isolated VM (your host stays clean, reset mistakes by cloning) - CI/CD pipelines for Apple platform apps - Automated UI testing across macOS versions - Disposable sandboxes for security research

To get started:

  /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/trycua/cua/main/libs/lume/scripts/install.sh)"

  lume create sandbox --os macos --ipsw latest --unattended tahoe
  lume run sandbox --shared-dir ~/my-project

Lume is MIT licensed and Apple Silicon only (M1/M2/M3/M4) since it uses Apple's native Virtualization Framework directly—no emulation.

Lume runs on EC2 Mac instances and Scaleway if you need cloud infrastructure. We're also working on a managed cloud offering for teams that need macOS compute on demand—if you're interested, reach out.

We're actively developing this as part of Cua (https://github.com/trycua/cua), our Computer Use Agent SDK. We'd love your feedback, bug reports, or feature ideas.

GitHub: https://github.com/trycua/cua Docs: https://cua.ai/docs/lume

We'll be here to answer questions!

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Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46670181

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