AgentVM app 1.1.1

[abra-code]

New: Names with capital letters, box names that fit, and enough memory for a macOS box. Released with agent-vm 0.7.54.

AgentVM.app is a Mac app for creating and managing AgentVM images and boxes: the virtual machines, running macOS or Linux, that AI coding agents run in, isolated from your Mac. It is a companion to the agent-vm and avm command line tools. Agents themselves run in Terminal (avm) or in Cadabra.

Highlights

• Capital letters in names. A box or an image can be named "MyBox" or "Dev-Tools", and the name keeps its case.
• Box names that fit. New Box and Rename say how long a box name can be, and refuse a longer one before anything is made.
• At least 3 GB for a macOS box. New Box no longer offers a box that cannot start.
• agent-vm 0.7.54: the app requires it and offers to install it.

Names with capital letters

Box and image names may now have capital letters: letters, digits, ".", "_" and "-", starting with a letter or a digit. The case is kept as you type it.

• A box made in Terminal with capitals can now be used in the app. In 1.1 it was listed, but Start, Stop, Delete and the other buttons did nothing for it.
• Two names that differ only in case cannot both be used, since the Mac's disk keeps them in one folder. New Box and New Image say which box or image already has the name, for example "A box named Work is there already". When that image is one that failed to build, New Image's Delete... offers that one.
• A change of case only is a rename: Rename can turn "work" into "Work".
• Names are matched with their case, as agent-vm matches them: a link such as agentvm://box/Work shows box Work, not box work.

Box names that fit

A box's control file lives in agent-vm's folder on your Mac, and macOS limits the length of that file's path. So the longest box name depends on where agent-vm keeps its boxes: in the usual place it is 39 characters less the length of your account name. A box with a longer name was made, but it never started, and agent-vm said only that the supervisor had exited.

• New Box refuses a longer name on its Name and size step, and says how many characters this store allows.
• Rename shows the limit under the name field for a box, and refuses a longer name before asking agent-vm. An image has no such limit beyond 63 characters.
• When the folder leaves no room for any name, as with a store in a deeply nested folder, New Box says so and points at the folder, not at the name.
• avm shortens the image name in the names of its temporary boxes and of the kept box it suggests, so they fit.

Memory for a macOS box

• New Box asks for at least 3 GB for a box made from a macOS image. With less, macOS does not finish starting, and agent-vm now refuses such a box. A Linux box still starts with 1 GB.
• An image recorded with less than 3 GB offers its boxes 3 GB.

From agent-vm 0.7.47 to 0.7.54

What the newer agent-vm brings that you will see:

• Two new agent recipes in New Image: native agent CLIs (Grok Build, Muse Code, Antigravity CLI) and agent CLIs of Chinese model makers (Kimi Code, Qwen Code, MiniMax Code). Each installs from its maker's own installer and needs no Node recipe. Both are offered for macOS and for Linux images.
• A Linux box can share up to 8 folders at once, so avm sessions on different projects can use one box. The sessions in one box are not kept apart: they run as the same account. The box pane names the first folder.
• A build no longer hangs on a Keychain question. When macOS asks on the Mac's screen whether this agent-vm may read the account password that another agent-vm build stored, a notice in the progress window says so, and Stop works meanwhile.
• Recreate refuses a box larger than this Mac allows before deleting it, and names the agent-vm box set command that brings it within the limits. Before, the box was deleted first and then could not be made again.
• After an agent or shell session, avm clears the window before asking whether to stop the box, so the question is no longer lost among earlier lines.

Good to know

• A box made before agent-vm 0.7.53 with a name too long for its store does not start: the job's log has agent-vm's reason and the agent-vm box rename command that fixes it. Rename in the box's pane does the same.
• A macOS box made earlier with less than 3 GB does not start either. The app has no place to change a box's memory yet; agent-vm's message names the agent-vm box set command for Terminal.

Requirements and installing

• A Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 27 or later. The app does not open anywhere else.
• agent-vm 0.7.54 or later. The app offers to install or update it.

Open AgentVM_1.1.1.zip and move AgentVM.app to the Applications folder, replacing version 1.1.

License

Apache License 2.0, as agent-vm.

---

This discussion was created from the release AgentVM app 1.1.1.