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

*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}'

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

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

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 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!

I tried to set up a macOS VM recently so I could run an old version of iTunes to manage my iPods. I found it nearly impossible to even download an installer for older versions of the OS, and could never get it working. Where can one acquire an IPSW for, say, macOS Mojave? My understanding is this is not the same thing as the “Install macOS.app”?

I believe this is using Virtualization.framework and not Containerization API from Tahoe, right?

Is there a limit on number of instances you can have per physical mac? i recall there was a hard limit of 2 because of EULA, unless Apple has changed it. (Cupertino really likes to sell you their Macs)

How is the networking? Tart broke networking in Tahoe. Would love to see this work, setting up base images has always been a massive pain.

Sorry for the naive question but specifically for running Claude on a sandbox, why do people decide to use lume as opposed to running it on Docker?