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microvm-nix/microvm.nix

NixOS MicroVMs

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microvm-nix/microvm.nix has 3k+ stars and 200+ forks on GitHub, is written in Nix, and was last pushed on Oct 18, 2026. Data as of . Signed-in members get hourly updates — create a free account.

Summary Information

Updated 2 minutes ago
Type:FrameworkCategory(s):Virtualization & VMsInfrastructure as Code & ConfigCloud Native & Infrastructure
Added to GitGenius on October 10th, 2026
Created on June 24th, 2021
Open Issues & Pull Requests: 46 (+0)
GitHub issues: Enabled
Number of forks: 239
Total Stargazers: 3,019 (+0)
Total Subscribers: 20 (+0)

Repository Insights (GitGenius)

Median issue/PR response: 9.3 hours
Mean response time: 14.4 days
90th percentile: 10.9 days
Tracked items: 127

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Maintainer activity

1 person did triage or write work on this repository in the last 12 months.

Counts unlabeled, assigned, unassigned, milestoned, demilestoned, locked, unlocked over the last 12 months. These are issue and pull request events that require triage or write permission. Commits and code review are not counted. labeled and renamed are excluded because GitHub issue forms record the issue author as the actor. Figures from October 18, 2026. This count is not comparable across projects: each project's automation decides which of these events a person emits. How this is counted.

How this project is maintained

Practically every issue opened in the past year has drawn a reply. 91% of open issues come from outside the core team, so the backlog reflects real-world use rather than internal planning. 83% of issues opened in the past year have been closed, leaving a working backlog. Three people close 83% of everything that gets resolved.

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Issue Activity (beta)

Open issues: 23
New in 7 days: 0
Closed in 7 days: 1
Avg open age: 524 days
Stale 30+ days: 23
Stale 90+ days: 18

Recent activity

Opened in 7 days: 0
Closed in 7 days: 0
Comments in 7 days: 0
Events in 7 days: 0

Top labels

  • enhancement (4)
  • help wanted (3)
  • good first issue (2)

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Detailed Description

microvm.nix is a Nix Flake for building and running NixOS MicroVMs on multiple Type-2 hypervisors on NixOS, Linux, and macOS.

The project addresses the need for lightweight, isolated virtual machines as an alternative to nixos-container. It works by packaging NixOS configurations as MicroVMs that run on one of eight supported hypervisors: qemu, cloud-hypervisor, firecracker, crosvm, kvmtool, stratovirt, alioth, or vfkit. MicroVMs use virtio device interfaces for high performance and feature read-only root disks built as either squashfs or erofs, with optional writable overlays. The host's Nix store can be mounted directly or prepopulated in the image. Stateful data is accessible through block device volumes or shared directories via 9p or virtiofs. Network connectivity is provided through virtual tap interfaces or user networking, with optional vhost-net kernel acceleration for high-throughput scenarios. MicroVMs are defined declaratively in a Nix Flake's nixosConfigurations section and can be deployed as systemd services or run as Nix packages.

Adoption suits teams already using NixOS who need process isolation stronger than containers but lighter than full virtual machines. The tool is particularly valuable for testing, development environments, and scenarios requiring reproducible, declarative infrastructure. Each hypervisor has different capabilities: qemu offers the broadest feature support, while firecracker and crosvm provide minimal footprints at the cost of some filesystem sharing options. vfkit enables MicroVM support on macOS. The project targets currently supported Nixpkgs and NixOS releases, with compatibility maintained through continuous integration.

Development activity shows consistent engagement with the project. The team maintains a public Matrix chat channel for community discussion. A comprehensive handbook is available alongside the repository documentation. The project runs continuous integration to ensure compatibility across supported NixOS versions. A changelog is maintained to track updates and changes.