Encore's crackling boots the same OCI images as microVMs on macOS and Linux
Encore built crackling, a daemon and CLI that boots OCI images as Linux microVMs behind one API — Firecracker on Linux, Apple's Virtualization.framework on macOS — after four years of routing Mac-based engineers through a shared remote build box. Existing options like Lima, Tart, and Apple's container each cover only one host, so a team wanting identical microVM builds on laptops and in production now has a single-protocol path with one guest agent; the write-up is architectural and publishes no boot-time or throughput numbers.
Source: encore.dev ↗
We wanted to run the same build system on our laptops while keeping Firecracker in production, so we built crackling, a single microVM API that drives Firecracker on Linux and Apple's hypervisor on macOS
Why this matters
- → Developers can now run identical build VMs on Mac laptops and Linux production without remote SSH access
- → Eliminates four-year workaround of routing all Mac engineers through a shared build server
- → Single OCI image + API abstracts away Firecracker (Linux) vs Apple Virtualization.framework (macOS) difference