Holos – QEMU/KVM with a compose-style YAML, GPUs and health checks

In plain words

Holos is a QEMU/KVM runtime for managing single-host VM stacks using YAML configuration similar to Docker Compose. It simplifies VM management by eliminating libvirt XML complexity and includes GPU passthrough support, health checks that control service dependencies, inter-VM networking without root privileges, cloud-init integration, and Docker-based provisioning. Designed for developers who need local multi-VM environments rather than clustered infrastructure, it operates as a prototype on individual hardware without clustering, live migration, or orchestration features.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

In the maker’s words, at launch

I got tired of libvirt XML and Vagrant's Ruby/reload dance for single-host VM stacks, so I built a compose-style runtime directly on QEMU/KVM. What's there: GPU passthrough as a first-class primitive (VFIO, OVMF, per-instance EFI vars), healthchecks that gate depends_on over SSH, socket-multicast L2 between VMs with no root and no bridge config, cloud-init wired through the YAML, Dockerfile support for provisioning. What it's not: Kubernetes. No clustering, no live migration, no control plane. Single host. Prototype, but I'm running it on real hardware. Curious what breaks for people.

• HC
  Holos – Configure Kubernetes with CUE data structures instead of YAML2024 · holos.run · ▲77

  Hi HN! I’m excited to share Holos, a Go command line tool we wrote to fill the configuration management gap in Kubernetes. Holos uses CUE to configure software distributed with Helm and Kustomize using a well defined, type safe language eliminating the need to template YAML. You probably know (or are) someone who has suffered with the complexity of plain text YAML templates and merging multiple values.yaml files together to configure software running in Kubernetes. We built Holos so we don’t have to template YAML but we can still integrate software distributed with Helm and Kustomize…

• LT
  Lightweight tool for managing Linux virtual machinesSep 2025 · github.com · ▲144

  hey guys. the other day i was migrating hosting providers and i just needed something not too heavy and convenient to spin up my backups for awhile and realised there is almost nothing out there. kimchi hasn't been updated for years and cockpit is heavy. so here's something i came up with in a couple hours because of a sudden urge, nothing fancy just basic creation with cloud init, lifecycle management and image/storage, but it's modern-ish and it compiles to a 8.4mb binary inclusive of the embedded web UI, CLI and API, and only dep is libvirt.

• WM
  We made glhf.chat – run almost any open-source LLM, including 405B2024 · glhf.chat · ▲161

  Try it out! https://glhf.chat/ Hey HN! We’ve been working for the past few months on a website to let you easily run (almost) any open-source LLM on autoscaling GPU clusters. It’s free for now while we figure out how to price it, but we expect to be cheaper than most GPU offerings since we can run the models multi-tenant. Unlike Together AI, Fireworks, etc, we’ll run any model that the open-source vLLM project supports: we don’t have a hardcoded list. If you want a specific model or finetune, you don’t have to ask us for it: you can just paste the Hugging Face link in and…

• QC
  Qvm-Create-Windows-Qube: The most secure and private way to run Windows2021 · github.com · ▲120
• SM
  Sub-millisecond VM sandboxes using CoW memory forkingMar 2026 · github.com · ▲311

  I wanted to see how fast an isolated code sandbox could start if I never had to boot a fresh VM. So instead of launching a new microVM per execution, I boot Firecracker once with Python and numpy already loaded, then snapshot the full VM state. Every execution after that creates a new KVM VM backed by a `MAP_PRIVATE` mapping of the snapshot memory, so Linux gives me copy-on-write pages automatically. That means each sandbox starts from an already-running Python process inside a real VM, runs the code, and exits. These are real KVM VMs, not containers: separate guest kernel, separate guest…

• HO
  High-order Virtual Machine (HVM) – A Parallel Functional Runtime2022 · github.com · ▲150

• 
  Dograh▲592

  The open source VAPI alternative

  Dev tools · 26d ago · dograh.com

• 
  Meridian▲530

  Don't let your work go unnoticed. Get promoted!

  Dev tools · 21d ago · meridiona.com

• 
  x1▲516

  Lovable for iPhone apps go from idea to App Store

  Dev tools · 12d ago · x1.new

• 
  Open-Source eInk Bike Computer▲408

  OpenTrailPaper is open-source bike computer firmware for the LilyGO T5S3 4.7" E-Paper PRO. It supports offline maps, GPX routes, FIT recording and Bluetooth sensors.

  Dev tools · 2d ago · opentrailpaper.com

• 
  The GTM Co-Founder▲402

  Open-source GTM skills for technical founders

  Dev tools · 30d ago · gtmcofounder.com

• 
  Nuphos▲380

  The AI-Native DevOps Workspace.

  Dev tools · 25d ago · nuphos.ai

• 
  Brila▲1,367

  One-page websites from real Google Maps reviews

  AI · Apr 2026 · brila.ai

• AG
  A game where you build a GPU▲964

  Thought the resources for GPU arch were lacking, so here we are

  Life & fun · Apr 2026 · jaso1024.com

• IB
  I built a tiny LLM to demystify how language models work▲915

  Built a ~9M param LLM from scratch to understand how they actually work. Vanilla transformer, 60K synthetic conversations, ~130 lines of PyTorch. Trains in 5 min on a free Colab T4. The fish thinks the meaning of life is food. Fork it and swap the personality for your own character.

  AI · Apr 2026 · github.com

• 
  Fathom 3.0▲803

  AI meeting notes: now bot-free, in ChatGPT & Claude + more

  AI · Apr 2026 · fathom.ai

• BC
  Brutalist Concrete Laptop Stand (2024)▲786

  Life & fun · Apr 2026 · sam-burns.com

• IB
  I built a frontpage for personal blogs▲783

  With social media and now AI, its important to keep the indie web alive. There are many people who write frequently. Blogosphere tries to highlight them by fetching the recent posts from personal blogs across many categories. There are two versions: Minimal (HN-inspired, fast, static): https://text.blogosphere.app/ Non-minimal: https://blogosphere.app/ If you don't find your blog (or your favorite ones), please add them. I will review and approve it.

  AI · Apr 2026 · text.blogosphere.app