# Tart by Cirrus Labs

20 Hacker News commenters recommended Tart by Cirrus Labs and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Runs macOS and Linux virtual machines on a Mac, well suited to disposable CI and sandboxed dev environments. Critics note it is source-available, not open source.

## Why people recommend it

- Runs macOS VMs on macOS (3 comments): "use something that leverages Apple's Virtualized.framework to run any version of macOS you want" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47838473)) "works great for running macOS (and Linux) VMs on macOS if you're technical" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47368063)) "tart lets you run macOS on macOS fairly well" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46519320))
- Wrapper over Apple's Virtualization framework (3 comments): "use something that leverages Apple's Virtualized.framework to run any version of macOS you want" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47838473)) "it's "just" a wrapper around Virtualization.framework with a few extra pieces" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47732017)) "tart, which is a lightweight wrapper around the official Apple API" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47731303))
- Praised as the best option (3 comments): "Tart is really cool, impressive, and useful." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47731985)) "tart is probably the best out there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47995000)) "for macOS, tart has been great!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47959025))
- Good for ephemeral CI and sandboxes (3 comments): "self-maintained fully sandboxed environments for CLI very liberating, alleviating my security concerns" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49568264)) "There's almost no other way I've found to stand up ephemeral CI/CD macOS VMs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47732792)) "gives you a full dev machine with a single command line" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49244496))

## What people warn about

- Source-available rather than open source (2 comments): "The when to choose Loom in the Tart section should also mention licensing, it is relevant at the choosing point." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46675406)) "Also worth drawing attention to Tart being source available not open source." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46674422))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [QEMU](https://hackerapproved.com/p/qemu.md): 114 recommend
- [UTM](https://hackerapproved.com/p/utm.md): 49 recommend
- [VirtualBox](https://hackerapproved.com/p/virtualbox.md): 34 recommend
- [Lima](https://hackerapproved.com/p/lima.md): 31 recommend
- [Vagrant](https://hackerapproved.com/p/vagrant.md): 25 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Tart by Cirrus Labs", https://hackerapproved.com/p/tart/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).