Quickstart

The fastest way to install heyvm is the one-line installer:

curl -fsSL https://heyo.computer/install.sh | sh

The installer:

• Detects your OS and architecture (macOS on x86_64/aarch64, Linux on x86_64/aarch64/armv7) and downloads a prebuilt binary.
• Installs both heyvm and, when available, the heyvmd daemon.
• Falls back to building from source with cargo if no prebuilt binary matches your platform.
• Installs to /usr/local/bin when writable, otherwise to ~/.local/bin (it prints PATH guidance when needed).

By default the installer also runs an interactive setup flow that detects which virtualization backends are present on your machine and writes your chosen default to ~/.heyo/settings.json (or $XDG_DATA_HOME/settings.json if set). You can re-run it at any time without reinstalling:

curl -fsSL https://heyo.computer/install.sh | sh -s -- --setup

Pass --no-setup to skip it during install. --setup runs the setup flow only, skipping the install itself. You can also change the default backend later from the TUI's defaults screen.

Create your first sandbox

# Create a sandbox (uses your platform default backend)
heyvm create --name my-sandbox --image default

# List sandboxes
heyvm list

# Run a command inside one
heyvm exec <id> -- echo "hello from inside the sandbox"

# Open an interactive shell
heyvm sh <id>

# Tear it down
heyvm rm <id>

To force a specific backend, pass --backend (alias --backend-type):

heyvm create --name my-sandbox --backend firecracker --image default

See Virtualization Backends for the full list and how to choose between them.

Installer options

The installer reads a few environment variables and flags:

Prefer building from source? See From Source.