TartDesk

TartDesk is a macOS desktop GUI for managing Tart virtual machines and OCI images.

Built with SwiftUI, it provides a native interface for browsing local Tart VMs, creating VMs from OCI images, editing VM settings, running or stopping machines, and accessing SSH information from your Mac.

If Tart is not installed, TartDesk shows an install screen on launch and can install Tart for you from within the app via Homebrew.

Download

The latest signed app bundle is available from GitHub Releases.

1. Download the latest .zip from Releases.
2. Extract TartDesk.app.
3. Drag and drop TartDesk.app into your Applications folder.
4. Launch TartDesk. If Tart is missing, the app will prompt you to install it and can run the Homebrew install command for you.
5. Install Tart manually if you prefer:

brew install cirruslabs/cli/tart

Requirements

• macOS 14+
• tart installed separately and available on the machine
• Homebrew if you want TartDesk to install Tart for you from inside the app
• Tart-compatible VMs or OCI images

TartDesk does not bundle Tart.

Features

• List local VMs and OCI images
• Detect when Tart is missing and show an install flow on launch
• Install Tart from inside the app via Homebrew
• Deduplicate OCI tag and digest entries in the UI
• Run local VMs in graphics or headless mode
• Configure per-VM shared folders from Edit VM Settings and apply them on run
• Stop local VMs
• Create local VMs from OCI images or other local VMs
• Create empty VMs
• Edit local VM settings
  • name
  • CPU
  • memory
  • display size
  • disk size
• Delete local VMs with confirmation
• Show Guest Agent / tart exec status
• Show VM IP address for SSH
• Copy SSH command
• Open SSH command in Terminal

Notes

• OCI images cannot be run directly. Clone them into a local VM first.
• TartDesk is a GUI wrapper around the tart CLI and depends on a separately installed Tart.
• If Tart is not installed, TartDesk can trigger brew install cirruslabs/cli/tart from the app. This requires Homebrew to already be installed.
• Some features depend on guest setup, for example:
  • SSH requires guest networking and an SSH server
  • tart exec requires Tart Guest Agent support in the guest
  • Shared folders require Tart's directory sharing support; macOS guests mount them under /Volumes/My Shared Files by default
• dist/ is a build artifact directory and is not meant to be committed.

Release Workflow

General distribution uses the notarized GitHub Actions flow in .github/workflows/release.yml.

Push a version tag to trigger the workflow:

git tag v0.0.1
git push origin v0.0.1

The workflow runs on the self-hosted macOS runner and:

• builds TartDesk.app
• signs it with Developer ID Application
• notarizes and staples it
• uploads the final zip to GitHub Releases

You can also run the workflow manually from the GitHub Actions UI when needed.

Development

Run the app directly from Swift Package Manager:

swift run

Build only:

swift build

Build a local .app bundle:

./scripts/build-app.sh

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.

TartDesk and Tart are licensed separately.

• TartDesk: MIT License
• Tart: licensed by Cirrus Labs under the Fair Source License 0.9

See the official Tart repository and its license for details:

• https://github.com/cirruslabs/tart
• https://github.com/cirruslabs/tart/blob/main/LICENSE