Elyra
 Elyra The coding agent eTerm The terminal that knows where each command ends Starf An activity monitor for Apple silicon that never invents a number etrans An SSH and SFTP client for macOS Elyra VM Virtual machines for macOS, Linux and Windows on your Mac Litr A small, native web browser for macOS Notr A notebook for macOS e The native code editor Elyra Grove Native local development environment Askr The real server for Laravel & PHP Elyra Framework Rust + Svelte 5 framework for desktop apps Elyra Conductor Local project conductor Refr Local-first PDF workspace for macOS Elyra Workspace A desktop workspace for coding agents Elyra SQL Server MySQL-compatible SQL server in Rust Elyra Félagi Agents as teammates on one board Elyra SQL Client Native desktop SQL workbench Elyra SQL Anywhere Replication-ready SQL engine Elyra Sjá SEO & GEO workspace for macOS Elyra DataGrid Server-driven data grid for Laravel
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User guide
Getting started
The library
Keyboard shortcuts
Using Elyra VM
Creating VMs
Running VMs
VM settings
Snapshots
Elyra VM Tools
The command line
AI agents (MCP)
Guests
macOS guests
Linux guests
Windows guests
Reference
Licence and updates
Troubleshooting
Limitations
Changelog
Elyra
Elyra
Elyra VM
Getting started

Getting started

What you need

  • A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later).
  • macOS 14 Sonoma or later. Saving a running VM (suspend) needs macOS 14; the app's window is designed for macOS 26 and 27.
  • Disk space for what your VMs actually hold. A VM's disk is sparse: a new VM with a 1 TB disk takes almost nothing until the guest writes to it.
  • For macOS: nothing; Elyra VM downloads macOS for you (20–30 GB, once). Or an .ipsw you have.
  • For Ubuntu and Fedora: nothing; Elyra VM downloads them. For other Linux: an ARM64 (aarch64) installer ISO. Intel (x86_64) ISOs do not boot.

Installing

Download Elyra VM from https://elyracode.com/elyravm: one disk image. Open it and drag Elyra VM to Applications. It is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens without warnings; the command line is inside it (The command line).

Elyra VM runs for 10 days with nothing held back, then with a licence (Licence and updates). It keeps itself up to date from elyracode.com.

To build it yourself instead, see Building.

Elyra VM ▸ About Elyra VM shows its version.

Your first VM

A Mac: click +, choose macOS 27, and click ▷ on the new VM. Its window downloads and installs macOS, then boots into Setup Assistant (macOS guests).

Ubuntu or Fedora: click +, choose Ubuntu 26.04 or Fedora 44, and click ▷. The window downloads the installer, checks it and boots it; install from the live session. When the installer restarts, Elyra VM takes the ISO out and starts the installed system (Linux guests).

Another Linux:

  1. Download an ARM64 ISO, for example Ubuntu Server for ARM, Fedora for aarch64 or Alpine "virt" for aarch64.
  2. Open Elyra VM. With no VMs yet, the window says No Virtual Machines.
  3. Click + in the top-right corner (or press ⌘N) and choose From an IPSW or ISO….
  4. Pick the ISO. A VM named after the file appears in the list, with 4 processors, 8 GB of memory and a 1 TB disk that takes no space yet.
  5. Optional: click the sliders button to change processors, memory or the network (VM settings).
  6. Click ▷ on the VM's row, or double-click the row. The VM opens in its own window and boots the installer.
  7. Install the system as you would on a PC, onto the VM's disk.

When you close the VM's window, the VM is suspended: saved exactly as it is, so the next start carries on where you left off. See Running VMs.

Where your VMs are kept

Each VM is one folder, Name.elyravm, in

~/Library/Application Support/Elyra VM/Machines/

Use Show in Finder in a VM's … menu to find it. A VM folder can be copied to another Mac as it is. See The .elyravm bundle for what is inside.

Trying the window without VMs

elyravm --demo
open "/Applications/Elyra VM.app" --args --demo

opens the library with a fixed set of example VMs kept in memory, to see how it looks in use. Nothing in demo mode touches the disk or runs a VM.

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