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hooleahn edited this page Jul 14, 2026
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Oven is a native macOS application for building and managing macOS virtual machines. It provides a polished GUI around industry-standard tools — Tart, Packer, and mist-cli — so you can provision, clone, and operate macOS VMs without wrestling with the command line.
| Task | How Oven Helps |
|---|---|
| Run macOS VMs locally | Start, stop, suspend, and SSH into Tart VMs from a native UI |
| Build reproducible base images | Orchestrate Packer builds from a template library with live log streaming |
| Download macOS firmware | Fetch IPSW files from ipsw.me or mist-cli; manage local copies |
| Share images with your team | Push and pull OCI images to/from any container registry (GHCR, Docker Hub, private) |
| Enroll VMs into MDM | Connect to Jamf Pro, create enrollment profiles, and provision managed VMs |
| Get notified when builds finish | Send alerts via macOS notifications, Pushover, Slack, or Teams |
| Work across multiple environments | Switch between isolated workspaces (profiles) with separate storage roots |
- macOS 14.0 (Ventura) or later
- Apple Silicon Mac
- Xcode 15.4+ (when building from source)
- External tools (Tart, Packer, mist-cli, jq, sshpass) are downloaded and managed automatically by Oven on first launch
- Getting Started — install, first-run setup, and onboarding
- Virtual Machines — create, clone, start, SSH, tags, shared folders
- Building Base VMs — Packer-based base image builds
- Templates & Building Blocks — template library and reusable provisioner snippets
- OS Installers — IPSW management and download sources
- OCI Registry — push/pull images to container registries
- MDM Integration — Jamf Pro connection and VM enrollment
- Notifications — Pushover, Slack, Teams, and system alerts
- Workspaces — multi-profile support
- Preferences — all settings explained
- Architecture — technical overview for contributors
Oven ships with a Fun Mode toggle in Preferences that swaps all UI labels into baking terminology:
| Standard | Fun Mode |
|---|---|
| Virtual Machines | Tarts |
| Base VMs / Recipes | Recipes |
| OS Installers | Ingredients |
| Registry | Pantry |
The data and behavior are identical — only the labels change.
Oven
Using Oven
Integrations
Advanced
Sources