---
hide:
  - navigation
title: Quick Start
description: Install Tart and run your first virtual machine on Apple Silicon in minutes.
---

Try running a Tart VM on your Apple Silicon device running macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later (will download a 25 GB image):

```bash
brew install cirruslabs/cli/tart
tart clone ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-sequoia-base:latest sequoia-base
tart run sequoia-base
```

??? info "Manual installation from a release archive"
    It's also possible to manually install `tart` binary from the latest released archive:

    ```bash
    curl -LO https://github.com/cirruslabs/tart/releases/latest/download/tart.tar.gz
    tar -xzvf tart.tar.gz
    xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine tart.app
    ./tart.app/Contents/MacOS/tart clone ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-sequoia-base:latest sequoia-base
    ./tart.app/Contents/MacOS/tart run sequoia-base
    ```

    Please note that `./tart.app/Contents/MacOS/tart` binary is required to be used in order to trick macOS
    to pick `tart.app/Contents/embedded.provisionprofile` for elevated privileges that Tart needs.

<p align="center">
  <img src="https://github.com/cirruslabs/tart/raw/main/Resources/TartScreenshot.png"/>
</p>

## VM images

The following macOS images are currently available:

* macOS 15 (Sequoia)
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-sequoia-vanilla:latest`
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-sequoia-base:latest`
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-sequoia-xcode:latest`
* macOS 14 (Sonoma)
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-sonoma-vanilla:latest`
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-sonoma-base:latest`
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-sonoma-xcode:latest`
* macOS 13 (Ventura)
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-ventura-vanilla:latest`
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-ventura-base:latest`
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-ventura-xcode:latest`
* macOS 12 (Monterey)
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-monterey-vanilla:latest`
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-monterey-base:latest`
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-monterey-xcode:latest`

There's also a [full list of images](https://github.com/orgs/cirruslabs/packages?tab=packages&q=macos-) in which you can discovery specific tags (e.g. `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/macos-monterey-xcode:15`) and [macOS-specific Packer templates](https://github.com/cirruslabs/macos-image-templates) that were used to generate these images.

For, Linux the options are as follows:

* Ubuntu
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/ubuntu:latest`
* Debian
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/debian:latest`
* Fedora
    * `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/fedora:latest`

Note that these Linux images have a minimal disk size of 20 GB, and you might want to resize them right after cloning:

```bash
tart clone ghcr.io/cirruslabs/ubuntu:latest ubuntu
tart set ubuntu --disk-size 50
tart run ubuntu
```

These Linux images can be ran natively on [Vetu](https://github.com/cirruslabs/vetu), our virtualization solution for Linux, assuming that Vetu itself is running on an `arm64` machine.

Similarly to macOS, there's also a [full list of images](https://github.com/orgs/cirruslabs/packages?repo_name=linux-image-templates) in which you can discovery specific tags (e.g. `ghcr.io/cirruslabs/ubuntu:22.04`) and [Linux-specific Packer templates](https://github.com/cirruslabs/linux-image-templates) that were used to generate these images.

All images above use the following credentials:

* Username: `admin`
* Password: `admin`

These credentials work both for logging in via GUI, console (Linux) and SSH.

## SSH access

If the guest VM is running and configured to accept incoming SSH connections you can conveniently connect to it like so:

```bash
ssh admin@$(tart ip sequoia-base)
```

!!! tip "Running scripts inside Tart virtual machines"
    We recommend using [Cirrus CLI](integrations/cirrus-cli.md) to run scripts and/or retrieve artifacts
    from within Tart virtual machines. Alternatively, you can use plain ssh connection and `tart ip` command:

    ```bash
    brew install cirruslabs/cli/sshpass
    sshpass -p admin ssh -o "StrictHostKeyChecking no" -o "UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null" admin@$(tart ip sequoia-base) "uname -a"
    sshpass -p admin ssh -o "StrictHostKeyChecking no" -o "UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null" admin@$(tart ip sequoia-base) < script.sh
    ```

## Mounting directories

To mount a directory, run the VM with the `--dir` argument:

```bash
tart run --dir=project:~/src/project vm
```

Here, the `project` specifies a mount name, whereas the `~/src/project` is a path to the host's directory to expose to the VM.

It is also possible to mount directories in read-only mode by adding a third parameter, `ro`:

```bash
tart run --dir=project:~/src/project:ro vm
```

To mount multiple directories, repeat the `--dir` argument for each directory:

```bash
tart run --dir=www1:~/project1/www --dir=www2:~/project2/www
```

Note that the first parameter in each `--dir` argument must be unique, otherwise only the last `--dir` argument using that name will be used.

Note: to use the directory mounting feature, the host needs to run macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or newer.

### Accessing mounted directories in macOS guests

All shared directories are automatically mounted to `/Volumes/My Shared Files` directory.

The directory we've mounted above will be accessible from the `/Volumes/My Shared Files/project` path inside a guest VM.

Note: to use the directory mounting feature, the guest VM needs to run macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or newer.

??? tip "Changing mount location"
    It is possible to remount the directories after a virtual machine is started by running the following commands:

    ```bash
    sudo umount "/Volumes/My Shared Files"
    mkdir ~/workspace
    mount_virtiofs com.apple.virtio-fs.automount ~/workspace
    ```

    After running the above commands the direcory will be available at `~/workspace/project`

### Accessing mounted directories in Linux guests

To be able to access the shared directories from the Linux guest, you need to manually mount the virtual filesystem first:

```bash
sudo mkdir /mnt/shared
sudo mount -t virtiofs com.apple.virtio-fs.automount /mnt/shared
```

The directory we've mounted above will be accessible from the `/mnt/shared/project` path inside a guest VM.

??? info "Auto-mount at boot time"
    To automatically mount this directory at boot time, add the following line to the `/etc/fstab` file:

    ```shell
    com.apple.virtio-fs.automount /mnt/shared virtiofs rw,relatime 0 0
    ```