🍡 Mochi

A tiny, native macOS virtual machine manager.
Built on Apple's Virtualization.framework — no QEMU, no bloat.

Features • Install • How It Works • Contributing

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Why Mochi?

Most macOS VM tools are heavy, complex, or rely on third-party hypervisors. Mochi takes a different approach — it's a single-purpose native app that does one thing well: spin up macOS VMs on Apple Silicon with near-native performance.

No configuration files. No terminal commands. Just click and go.

Features

• One-click VM creation — Mochi downloads the latest compatible macOS restore image automatically
• Near-native performance — runs directly on Apple's Virtualization.framework, not emulation
• Suspend & restore — save VM state and resume exactly where you left off
• Shared folders — seamlessly share files between host and guest (read-only or read-write)
• Live telemetry — real-time CPU, memory, and uptime monitoring per VM
• Menu bar access — quick-launch running VMs from the menu bar
• Duplicate VMs — clone an existing VM with a single click
• Sparse disk images — storage grows only as needed, no pre-allocated bloat
• Configurable hardware — tune CPU cores, RAM, disk size, and display resolution per VM
• Beautiful card UI — a clean, modern dashboard with color themes

Requirements

Requirement	Minimum
macOS	14.0 (Sonoma)
Chip	Apple Silicon (M1+)
Xcode	16.0+ (build from source)

Install

Download (recommended)

Grab the latest .dmg from Releases, open it, and drag Mochi to your Applications folder.

First launch: Right-click the app and select Open (macOS requires this for apps outside the App Store on first run).

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/jamesyong-42/mochi.git
cd mochi
open Mochi.xcodeproj

Hit ⌘R to build and run.

Tip: Click the + button in the app to create your first VM. Mochi handles the rest — downloading the macOS image, configuring hardware, and installing the guest OS.

How It Works

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Mochi App (SwiftUI)                            │
│  ┌───────────┐  ┌───────────┐  ┌─────────────┐ │
│  │ Dashboard  │  │  Wizard   │  │  Settings   │ │
│  │  (Cards)   │  │ (Create)  │  │  (Storage)  │ │
│  └─────┬─────┘  └─────┬─────┘  └──────┬──────┘ │
│        │               │               │        │
│  ┌─────▼───────────────▼───────────────▼──────┐ │
│  │           VMManager (@Observable)          │ │
│  └─────────────────┬──────────────────────────┘ │
│                    │                             │
│  ┌─────────────────▼──────────────────────────┐ │
│  │  Virtualization.framework (Apple Native)   │ │
│  │  VZVirtualMachine → VZMacPlatformConfig    │ │
│  └────────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Storage: ~/Library/Application Support/Mochi/
├── VMs/{uuid}/
│   ├── config.json          # VM configuration
│   ├── disk.img             # Sparse disk image
│   ├── auxiliary-storage    # NVRAM
│   ├── hardware-model       # Platform identity
│   ├── machine-identifier   # Unique machine ID
│   └── saved-state          # Suspended state (optional)
└── IPSWCache/               # Cached macOS images

Key design decisions:

• Sparse disk images — a 64 GB disk only uses ~15 GB on your host until the guest fills it up
• Native virtualization — no translation layer, VMs run at near-bare-metal speed on Apple Silicon
• JSON configs — every VM's configuration is a plain JSON file you can inspect or back up
• APFS cloning — duplicating a VM uses copy-on-write, so clones are instant and space-efficient

Project Structure

Mochi/
├── App/                  # App entry point & main view
├── Models/               # Data models (VMConfig, VMState, Theme)
├── ViewModels/           # State management (VMManager)
├── Views/                # SwiftUI views
│   ├── MochiCard.swift   # VM card component
│   ├── MochiWizard.swift # Create/edit VM sheet
│   ├── MenuBarView.swift # Menu bar extra
│   └── Components/       # Reusable UI components
└── Services/             # Core services
    ├── VirtualizationService.swift  # VM lifecycle
    ├── IPSWService.swift            # Image downloads
    └── StorageService.swift         # Disk & config I/O

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how:

1. Fork the repo
2. Create a branch — git checkout -b my-feature
3. Commit your changes — git commit -m "Add my feature"
4. Push — git push origin my-feature
5. Open a Pull Request

Please keep PRs focused and include a clear description of what changed and why.

Roadmap

• Linux guest support (Ubuntu, Fedora)
• Snapshots (multiple save states per VM)
• VM templates and presets
• Drag-and-drop file sharing
• Network configuration options
• Export/import VMs

License

MIT — use it however you want.

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Built with ♥ and SwiftUI on Apple Silicon