Caker
![]()
Welcome to the Caker documentation wiki.
Caker is a Swift-native virtualization platform for macOS that streamlines VM lifecycle management from development to operations.
It combines a powerful daemon (caked) with a practical CLI (cakectl) so teams can build, run, inspect, and automate virtual machines consistently.
If you run caked as a service, use cakectl as the primary interface.
Caker is a virtualization toolchain used to build, launch, and manage virtual machines on macOS.
It is designed around three complementary components:
caked: the daemon/service that performs VM, image, and network operationscakectl: the CLI client used to controlcakedCaker.app: the GUI client used to controlcakedor standalone
In typical usage, cakectl sends commands to caked through gRPC, and caked executes lifecycle actions such as build, launch, start/stop, image pull/push, and network management.
Use this wiki as the central reference for architecture, command usage, troubleshooting, and operational workflows.
Contributor guide: CONTRIBUTING.md
Quick links
- Getting Started
- Architecture
- Development
- Troubleshooting
- FAQ
- Release Notes
- Command Summary
- Sandbox
- Cheat Sheet
- Private Policy
Repository map
Sources/caked/– daemon entrypoints and commandsSources/cakectl/– CLI commands and client logicSources/cakedlib/– shared core librarySources/caker/– GUI appSources/grpc/– gRPC layer and generated interfacesTests/andCaker/CakerTests/– test suites