2025-12-18 (Thursday)

[AkihiroSuda]

How to join

• Date: 2025-12-18 (Thursday) 05:30 UTC (Wednesday 21:30 PST, 06:30 CET, 11:00 IST, 14:30 JST) - 06:30
• Link: https://zoom-lfx.platform.linuxfoundation.org/meetings/lima
  • Zoom, Video recording, and AI-generated meeting note

The meetings are open to anyone, not just for maintainers and contributors.

Attendees

@AkihiroSuda @dharsanb @unsuman @abiosoft Ben Creasy

Agenda

Note taker: @AkihiroSuda

CNCF blog

• https://www.cncf.io/blog/2025/12/11/lima-v2-0-new-features-for-secure-ai-workflows/
• @unsuman is interested in writing other blog articles in future (e.g., for upcoming limactl shell --sync)
  • Share a draft with maintainers and then with CNCF via the submission form
  • Approval by CNCF may take a couple of weeks

FOSDEM (Jan 31-Feb 1)

• Lima v2.0: expanding the focus to hardening AI by @AkihiroSuda

KubeCon EU (Mar 23-26)

• Applied for Kiosk and Maintainers' session, waiting for acceptance

Social media accounts

• https://x.com/TheLimaProject

• https://mastodon.social/@TheLimaProject

• The purpose of the social media accounts have to be cared about; update posts will not be seen by many people until getting many followers due to the algorithm -- @dharsanb

  • Sort of chicken-and-egg -- @AkihiroSuda

v2.0.3

• Right after the release of nerdctl v2.2.1 v2.2.1 planning containerd/nerdctl#4647
• https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/67
• [v2 regression] limactl copy (w/ rsync) puts the destination directory in an extra directory #4468

v2.1

• Ideally before FOSDEM (Jan 31-Feb 1), more realistically before KubeCon EU (Mar 23-26)

• https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/milestone/62

• Ready to review (now) and merge (after releasing v2.0.3), but open for several months:

  • downloader: CacheKey: include decompression flag #4067
  • guestagent: k8s: use kubectl instead of client-go #4120
  • Decouple diffdisk (misnomer) from basedisk #4206

• Other VM drivers in v2.1? -- @unsuman

  • Anders have several PRs, some of the PRs should be merged into v2.1 (especially "generic"): Generic/External internal driver for all OS #2000 Apple Container external driver for macOS #3839 Kata/Docker Container external driver for Linux #3840 -- @AkihiroSuda
    • The name of the docker driver has to be carefully chosen to avoid confusion with template:docker (Kata/Docker Container external driver for Linux #3840) -- @AkihiroSuda
  • macOS guest drivers maybe? VM drivers for supporting macOS guests (vz, host-user) #3618
    • Tart already achieves this? --@abiosoft
      • Proprietary, also the license of cirruslabs/macos-runner is unclear VM sandboxing AkihiroSuda/alcless#15 (comment) -- @AkihiroSuda

Others

• libvirt vs lima? -- Ben Creasy
  • libvirt is comparable to plain Hyper-v on Windows while Lima is comparable to WSL2; i.e., flavored with the support for filesystem mounts, port forwradings, etc. -- @AkihiroSuda

Tasks

• @AkihiroSuda release v2.0.3
• @AkihiroSuda fix the limactl copy regression [v2 regression] limactl copy (w/ rsync) puts the destination directory in an extra directory #4468
• @unsuman complete the --sync PR with tests Feature(cli): Add --sync to prevent AI agents from breaking the host files #4429
• Please review PRs

Next meeting

2026-01-15 (Thursday)

[afbjorklund]

Missed that the meeting was an hour earlier, due to the timezone changes. 😴 Happy holidays!

[afbjorklund]

libvirt vs lima?

You could also say that libvirt is a complex XML wrapper and server, on top of the simpler qemu.

It is not worthwhile for local connections (IMHO), but could be interesting for remote machines?

See issue #2031

[afbjorklund]

I have created three types of drivers:

1. Drivers for local machines (The Linux physical machines #2029)
2. Drivers for cloud machines (Cloud driver for private cloud setup #3787)
3. Drivers for VM "containers" (The Lima container drivers #3829)

The hardest thing so far has been naming...

[AkihiroSuda]

AI-generated meeting note

Quick Recap

The meeting focused on discussing updates and improvements to the Lima project, including the release of version 2.2 and plans for version 2.0.3. The team addressed issues related to regression fixes and CLI command inconsistencies. They also discussed the potential merging of rsync features and the migration of test scripts to a new testing framework. The conversation touched on the project's social media strategy, with participants agreeing on the importance of organic growth and sharing project updates. External VM drivers were explored, with suggestions for adding support for Mercury and host user drivers. Ben, a new participant, inquired about the project's enterprise features and its compatibility with enterprise security standards, expressing interest in potential integration with AWS services. The conversation ended with a reminder of upcoming tasks and the next meeting date.

Next Steps

• Akihiro: Fix regression in Lima CTR copy today or tomorrow
• Akihiro: Release version 2.0.3 after fixing the regression
• Akihiro: Present about version 2 at KubeCon in Belgium at the end of next month
• Ansuman: Send draft blog post about new cell sync feature to maintainers for review before submitting to CNCF
• Ansuman: Complete the rsync peer with tests using bots
• Ansuman: Apply for CNCF travel funding after getting selected for KubeCon
• Ansuman: Apply for Schengen visa after travel funding approval
• All team members: Review pending PRs when time permits
• All team members: Review PR for migrating test-lima.sh to Go Lima bats testing framework
• All team members: Review PR about refactoring to remove dependency on crypto/ssh/terminal in Go
• Andres: Address comments on the potential reboot group issue in Fedora
• Ben: Consider opening a GitHub issue documenting enterprise use case requirements

Summary

Lima Brian 2 Blog Updates:
The team discussed the recent blog post about Lima Brian 2, which covered updates including Gibiot, drivers, MCP, and AI implementations. Ansuman inquired about posting a blog on CNCF, and Akihiro confirmed that project managers can submit drafts for review, noting that CNCF reviews typically take two weeks. The team also discussed social media strategy, with Dharsan and Akihiro agreeing that Twitter should focus on sharing updates rather than providing user support or pursuing organic growth, as the project's documentation is already available elsewhere. Finally, they addressed the need to fix a regression issue in Lima CTR copy before proceeding with the 2.0.3 release.

Rsync Features and PR Reviews:
The team discussed merging rsync features and migrating test scripts to a new framework, with Akihiro suggesting they wait for further input before proceeding. They reviewed several pull requests, including one for batch testing that Ansuman had documented, and discussed a large PR for BM to BM communication that would likely be merged next month. Akihiro also mentioned ongoing work on network C RPC design and various refactoring efforts that had reduced binary footprint from 14MB to 8MB.

Lima External Driver Integration Discussion:
The team discussed adding external VM drivers to Lima, with Akihiro mentioning Andres' work on a generic driver for connecting Lima to physical servers and a Docker container driver. They considered adding support for Mercury GPUs using busybox, but noted it would be complicated due to macOS disk access requirements and user account creation. Abiola inquired about user requests for host user drivers, and Akihiro explained that while there are similar proprietary solutions, the licensing and security aspects make it challenging to implement.

Comparing Lima and Libvert:
Ben inquired about the use and comparison of Lima and Libvert for managing developer environments across different operating systems, highlighting the need for enterprise-level features like Microsoft Intune and Jamf integration. Akihiro explained Lima's strengths, such as its similarity to Docker and support for multiple operating systems, while noting that enterprise support is provided by third-party downstreams like AWS's Finch. Dharsan suggested Ben document his use case in a GitHub issue to engage the community and explore potential future implementations. The conversation ended with Akihiro outlining his tasks for the next release and confirming the next meeting date.

[AkihiroSuda]

Corrections

External VM drivers were explored, with suggestions for adding support for Mercury and host user drivers.

Mercury → macOS?

Akihiro: Present about version 2 at KubeCon in Belgium at the end of next month

KubeCon → FOSDEM

Ansuman: Complete the rsync peer with tests using bots

bots → bats

All team members: Review PR for migrating test-lima.sh to Go Lima bats testing framework

test-lima.sh → test-colima.sh

All team members: Review PR about refactoring to remove dependency on crypto/ssh/terminal in Go

I don't think we talked about that ?

Andres: Address comments on the potential reboot group issue in Fedora

• Andres → Anders (not attending this time)
• group → loop

The team discussed the recent blog post about Lima Brian 2, which covered updates including Gibiot, drivers, MCP, and AI implementations.

• Brian → Version
• Gibiot → GPU ?

The team discussed merging rsync features and migrating test scripts to a new framework, with Akihiro suggesting they wait for further input before proceeding.

No, just wait until v2.0.3 so that we can unlock the master branch for v2.1

BM to BM communication

BM → VM

Akihiro also mentioned ongoing work on network C RPC design and various refactoring efforts that had reduced binary footprint from 14MB to 8MB.

C RPC → gRPC (#4326 (comment))

Not related to the binary footprint reduction (#4120)

. They considered adding support for Mercury GPUs using busybox, but noted it would be complicated due to macOS disk access requirements and user account creation.

• Mercury → Mac ?
• busybox → alcless (https://github.com/AkihiroSuda/alcless) ?

Ben inquired about the use and comparison of Lima and Libvert for managing developer environments across different operating systems, highlighting the need for enterprise-level features like Microsoft Intune and Jamf integration.

• Libvert → Libvirt
• I don't think we talked about "Jamf". Probably didn't talk about Intune either.

[AkihiroSuda]

Corrections

External VM drivers were explored, with suggestions for adding support for Mercury and host user drivers.

Mercury → macOS?

Akihiro: Present about version 2 at KubeCon in Belgium at the end of next month

KubeCon → FOSDEM

Ansuman: Complete the rsync peer with tests using bots

bots → bats

All team members: Review PR for migrating test-lima.sh to Go Lima bats testing framework

test-lima.sh → test-colima.sh

All team members: Review PR about refactoring to remove dependency on crypto/ssh/terminal in Go

I don't think we talked about that ?

Andres: Address comments on the potential reboot group issue in Fedora

• Andres → Anders (not attending this time)
• group → loop

The team discussed the recent blog post about Lima Brian 2, which covered updates including Gibiot, drivers, MCP, and AI implementations.

• Brian → Version
• Gibiot → GPU ?

The team discussed merging rsync features and migrating test scripts to a new framework, with Akihiro suggesting they wait for further input before proceeding.

No, just wait until v2.0.3 so that we can unlock the master branch for v2.1

BM to BM communication

BM → VM

Akihiro also mentioned ongoing work on network C RPC design and various refactoring efforts that had reduced binary footprint from 14MB to 8MB.

C RPC → gRPC (#4326 (comment))

Not related to the binary footprint reduction (#4120)

. They considered adding support for Mercury GPUs using busybox, but noted it would be complicated due to macOS disk access requirements and user account creation.

• Mercury → Mac ?
• busybox → alcless (https://github.com/AkihiroSuda/alcless) ?

Ben inquired about the use and comparison of Lima and Libvert for managing developer environments across different operating systems, highlighting the need for enterprise-level features like Microsoft Intune and Jamf integration.

• Libvert → Libvirt
• I don't think we talked about "Jamf". Probably didn't talk about Intune either.