Cilicon

Cilicon is a macOS application that uses Apple’s Virtualization Framework to launch short‑lived virtual machines for continuous‑integration workloads on Apple Silicon hardware. It creates and provisions CI VMs with near‑native performance and supports common runners such as GitHub Actions, Buildkite Agent, GitLab Runner, as arbitrary scripts. The tool follows a simple cycle of fetching an OCI‑compatible image, starting the VM, executing the configured job, and then discarding the instance.

The current version adopts the tart image format and includes an integrated OCI client that can download pre‑built macOS images, for example the publicly hosted macos‑sonoma‑xcode images. Users configure the system with a cilicon.yml file placed in the host’s home directory, specifying the source image, SSH credentials, and runner settings. Migration from the earlier 1.0 release involves renaming a single configuration key and optionally converting legacy images.

Cilicon is intended for developers and teams that need a self‑hosted CI environment on Apple Silicon without relying on external cloud services. It aims to provide a quick setup—minutes to get a functional runner—and allows customization of the macOS image through the tart tooling when needed.