VM MultipleXer

After writing one too many bash scripts to manage my QEMU VMs, I vibecoded vx to be the zero-config VM management CLI and TUI of your dreams! It has never been easier to provision, manage, and ssh into Linux VMs from the terminal.

vx new dev    # create and boot a VM
vx ssh dev    # connect to it
vx            # open the dashboard

vx uses QEMU under the hood, needs no sudo or config file, and keeps each VM in its own directory under ~/.vx.

Works on macOS and Linux.

Needs QEMU (brew install qemu, or your package manager) and Rust.

cargo install --git https://github.com/AlexanderWangY/vx

Run vx with no arguments.

⏎ ssh · s start · x stop · p pause · n new · d delete · t snapshots · tab images · ? all keys

On a terminal at least 120 columns wide, the selected VM's details sit on the right: live CPU (overall and per core), memory, swap, disk and network from inside the guest, read over SSH with nothing to install. i hides or shows them.

vx new web --image fedora-44 --cpus 2 --mem 8G --disk 40G
vx new                          # no name: fill in a form
vx ls
vx start | stop | pause | resume <vm>
vx ssh <vm> [-- cmd]            # starts it first if needed
vx console <vm>                 # serial console, Ctrl-] to detach
vx logs -f <vm>
vx snap <vm> [name]             # see Snapshots below
vx rm <vm>

Leave out the VM name and you get a picker.

vx snap dev before-upgrade -m "known good"   # save it as it is now
vx snap ls dev                               # the history, as a tree
vx snap restore dev before-upgrade           # go back
vx snap rm dev before-upgrade

A running VM's memory is saved too, so restoring puts it back exactly where it was, processes and all. Restore an older snapshot and save again, and you've started a branch. vx snap ls keeps the line to where the VM is now straight down the left, with everything else branching off it:

○ fresh       2d ago                    first boot
● deps        2d ago  +545 MB memory    toolchains
├─● try-nix   1d ago  +547 MB memory
● k8s         5h ago  +547 MB memory    kind cluster up
◉ now         running

In the dashboard, t opens the selected VM's tree: c saves, ⏎ restores, space unfolds a branch. Snapshots live inside the VM's disk, so vx rm takes them with it.

16 popular distros are built in. vx images lists them. Each is downloaded once, checked against its published checksum, and cached.

Bring your own qcow2 or raw image:

vx images add mybox ~/Downloads/mybox.qcow2
vx new dev --image mybox

• vx ssh dev -- uname -a runs one command.
• Put Include ~/.vx/vms/*/ssh_config at the top of ~/.ssh/config, then ssh dev.vx, scp and rsync just work.
• Forward ports: add forward = ["8080:80"] above [ssh] in ~/.vx/vms/dev/vx.toml. Applies on next start.
• vx images pull ubuntu-24.04 downloads ahead of time.
• VX_HOME=/somewhere/else keeps everything somewhere else.