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Getting Started

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Julian Ortega edited this page Jun 11, 2026 · 1 revision

Getting Started

Requirements

Requirement Minimum Recommended
macOS 14.0 (Ventura) 15+ (Sequoia)
CPU Any Apple Silicon M2 or later
RAM 8 GB 16 GB or more
Disk 50 GB free 100 GB+ free
Xcode 15.4 (build from source only) Latest stable

Installation

Pre-built Release

Download the latest .pkg from the Releases page, run it, then look for Oven.app in your Applications folder.

Build from Source

  1. Clone the repository and open the project:

    git clone https://github.com/<your-org>/Oven.git
cd Oven
open Oven.xcodeproj

  2. In Xcode, select your development team under Signing & Capabilities.

  3. Build and run with ⌘R.

First Launch & Onboarding

On first launch Oven displays an Onboarding screen that walks you through initial setup:

Step 1 — Choose a Storage Location

Oven stores VMs, IPSW firmware files, and Packer templates in directories on your Mac. You can accept the defaults or choose custom locations in the onboarding wizard (and change them later in Preferences → Storage).

Default locations:

  • VMs: ~/.tart/ (managed by Tart)
  • IPSW files: ~/Library/Application Support/Oven/ipsw/
  • Packer templates: ~/Library/Application Support/Oven/packer/

Step 2 — Dependency Check

Oven requires five command-line tools. By default it manages them itself:

Tool Purpose
tart VM hypervisor
packer Infrastructure-as-code provisioning
mist-cli Alternative macOS firmware listing
jq JSON parsing within build pipelines
sshpass Password-based SSH to VMs

Click Download Tools and Oven fetches the correct versions automatically. You can also point Oven at tools you already have installed — see Preferences → Tools.

Step 3 — Ready

Once all dependencies show a green checkmark, click Get Started. The main window opens.

Main Window Layout

Oven uses a three-column layout:

┌─────────────┬──────────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
│  Sidebar    │  List                │  Detail Pane               │
│             │                      │                            │
│  VMs        │  List of VMs or      │  Selected item's details,  │
│  Base VMs   │  Base VMs or         │  actions, and config       │
│  Installers │  Installers, etc.    │                            │
│  Registry   │                      │                            │
│  Log        │                      │                            │
└─────────────┴──────────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
  • Sidebar — switch between sections
  • List — browse items in the selected section
  • Detail Pane — view and edit the selected item; perform actions like start, stop, SSH, build

Menu Bar Extra

Oven adds an icon to your macOS menu bar. Click it to:

  • See which VMs are currently running
  • Start or stop VMs without bringing the main window forward
  • Open the main window

The menubar extra lists most-recently launched VMs, and you can additionally pin VMs to the menubar for quick access.

OS Permissions

Oven needs the following permissions

  • Disk Access – If VMs are stored in a different path than the default one.
  • Local Network Access – Required for connecting via SSH to VMs.

Those are it off the top of my head. Holler if you see any other being requested.

Next Steps

Reporting Issues and Feedback

You can create an issue in this repository or let's chat over at the #oven-beta channel in the MacAdmins Slack!

Oven

Using Oven

Integrations

Advanced

Sources

Clone this wiki locally