Hostwright is a Mac-native desired-state container platform for Apple silicon.

The repository is on the 0.0.2-dev development line. The release target is v0.0.2; it has not reached GA and is not production ready.

GA requires all 15 phases plus two clean release-candidate qualification runs; no partial or blocked phase is hidden behind the version number.

Phase 01 established the breaking contracts and evidence system:

• Manifest v2;
• Control API v2;
• Runtime Provider API v2;
• plugin ABI v1;
• state schema v7;
• Hostwright UUID identity, project-generation provider binding, and durable operation-saga state;
• machine-readable capability truth through hostwright capabilities --json;
• deterministic read-only v1/versionless manifest migration preview.

Phase 02 qualification is complete. The existing implementation remains narrower than the v0.0.2 outcome. It includes a restricted manifest parser, deterministic planning, hardened schema-v7 SQLite ledgers and maintenance, Apple container observation, a few confirmation-gated lifecycle mutations, bounded logs/events/diagnostics, a foreground daemon loop, local policy/team profiles, a one-shot control process, advisory scheduling models, signed/notarized qualification ZIP and .pkg artifacts, SBOMs, provenance and attestations, and a published vendor tap. Clean macOS 26 qualification passed package and tap install, upgrade, repair, rollback, reboot, uninstall, state recovery, signed doctor, abrupt-power recovery, and exact cleanup. It does not yet provide complete workload lifecycle, Containerization, networking, persistent storage, HA, Kubernetes/Docker compatibility, GUI, or GA qualification. Phase 03 has not started.

The authoritative scope and every limitation-to-implementation mapping are in the v0.0.2 implementation plan. The machine-readable issue manifest tracks one master, 15 epics, and 167 workstreams. No research-only, blocked, fixture-only, mock-only, or dirty result closes an implementation gate.

brew install hostwright does not exist today. The Hostwright-controlled qualification channel is available from the maintained hostwright/homebrew-tap repository:

brew install hostwright/tap/hostwright

The tap installs immutable signed/notarized 0.0.2-dev qualification artifacts. It is not a v0.0.2 GA or production-readiness claim. Phase 15 owns Homebrew-core submission; unqualified installation remains subject to external Homebrew acceptance.

For current development, build from source:

git clone https://github.com/hostwright/hostwright.git
cd hostwright
swift build
swift test
scripts/integration.sh

Requirements:

• Apple silicon;
• macOS 26 or later for the current package target;
• Swift 6.2-compatible toolchain;
• Apple container only for commands that explicitly observe or mutate that runtime.

See installation and compatibility for exact current evidence and target scope.

swift run hostwright --version
swift run hostwright capabilities --json
swift run hostwright paths --json
swift run hostwright state integrity --json
swift run hostwright state backup --json
swift run hostwright state backups --json
swift run hostwright init
swift run hostwright migrate preview hostwright.yaml
swift run hostwright validate
swift run hostwright plan
swift run hostwright status
swift run hostwright logs api
swift run hostwright events
swift run hostwright cleanup --dry-run
swift run hostwright doctor
swift run hostwrightd --foreground --config hostwright.yaml --max-iterations 1

State-backed commands default to ~/Library/Application Support/Hostwright/state/state.sqlite; --state-db remains an explicit override. Hostwright creates private 0700 directories, requires 0600 sensitive files, and safely migrates a compatible ~/.hostwright/state.sqlite through a resumable journal. hostwright state provides full integrity reports, SQLite online backup, verified catalogs, confirmation-bound atomic restore, reconstruction-only repair, and interrupted-maintenance recovery. See state-store architecture, CLI reference, and local paths.

The current mutation surface still requires plan/cleanup confirmation tokens. hostwrightd is not yet installed as a LaunchAgent and does not yet perform the Phase 08 unattended reconciliation contract.

New manifests require an explicit version:

version: 2
project: api-local

services:
  api:
    image: ghcr.io/example/api:latest
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"

The current parser remains a restricted YAML subset. Versionless and explicit v1 files are legacy input and fail execution with migration guidance. Preview a deterministic, non-writing conversion:

hostwright migrate preview hostwright.yaml
hostwright migrate preview hostwright.yaml --json

The preview only upgrades the version contract today; Phase 04 owns the maintained YAML parser, complete executable workload schema, lifecycle semantics, and full semantic migration.

• Runtime operations cross RuntimeAdapter / Runtime Provider API boundaries.
• Every new resource receives a Hostwright UUID; Apple names are attributes, not authority.
• A project generation is bound to one mutation provider.
• State schema v7 records UUIDs, provider generations, fencing, saga intent, compensation, and verification fields.
• Local state uses the secure Application Support default unless an explicit CLI or environment override wins.
• Names or similar configuration never authorize deletion.
• Hostwright does not delete unmanaged resources.
• Secrets are resolved only at execution boundaries and must not enter argv, state, logs, diagnostics, crash bundles, or provenance.
• Cluster mutation will stop on quorum loss when multi-Mac support arrives.

Architecture decisions:

• Resource identity and provider binding
• Durable operation DAG and saga
• v0.0.2 platform contracts

swift build
swift test list || swift test --list-tests
swift test
scripts/integration.sh
scripts/grep-orchard.sh .
scripts/test.sh
scripts/lint.sh

Evidence classes and issue closure rules are documented in Testing and Evidence. Public claims are limited to the exact tested platform and version scope.

The 15 phases cover trusted install; Apple providers; complete lifecycle; images/registries/secrets; storage; networking; autonomous recovery and observability; API/security/extensions; scheduler/optimization/accelerators; multi-Mac HA; Kubernetes; Docker ecosystem; GUI/team/cloud; and exhaustive GA qualification.

Permanent boundaries are limited to private Apple APIs, unsupported Intel/old-macOS emulation, unsafe quorum writes, silent telemetry, unauthenticated public exposure, and unmanaged destructive garbage collection. Each technically constrained user outcome has a safe fallback in the roadmap.

Earlier release notes, research records, and the former phase plan remain available for traceability. They are historical snapshots and do not override current-main documentation, hostwright capabilities --json, or the v0.0.2 roadmap.

• Historical Control-plane direction
• Historical Documentation-site source-of-truth plan