wslmanager

<h1 align="center">Welcome to WSL Manager 👋</h1>

<p align='center'> English | <a href='./readme/README_zh.md'>简体中文</a> | <a href='./readme/README_zh_tw.md'>繁體中文</a> | <a href='./readme/README_de.md'>Deutsch</a> | <a href='./readme/README_es.md'>Español</a> | <a href='./readme/README_ja.md'>日本語</a> | <a href='./readme/README_hu.md'>Magyar</a> | <a href='./readme/README_pt.md'>Português</a> | <a href='./readme/README_tr.md'>Türkçe</a> </p>

<p align='center'> _{Shown on <b>Windows</b> &middot; the same app runs native VMs on <b>macOS</b> &mdash; expand <b>See it on macOS</b> below} </p> <details> <summary>Preview with light theme (Windows)</summary>

</details> <details> <summary><b>🍎 See it on macOS</b> &mdash; native Linux and macOS virtual machines through Apple's Virtualization framework <i>(beta)</i></summary>

</details>

WSL Distro Manager is a free, open source GUI for the Windows Subsystem for Linux — and, on macOS, for native Linux VMs. Install, copy, rename, move, back up and delete WSL distros without memorising a single wsl.exe flag — plus templates, saved command snippets, disk mounting, .wslconfig editing, remote WSL over SSH, and an MCP server that lets AI agents drive your WSL environment. On a Mac the very same app manages virtual machines through Apple's Virtualization framework instead.

🚀 Features

Manage distros

• [x] Install from a built-in catalogue, or bring your own rootfs
• [x] Copy, rename, move to another drive, back up and delete instances
• [x] Back every instance up to one folder — with a list of what is in it — and restore them all on another PC
• [x] Compact virtual disks to reclaim space WSL never gives back
• [x] Supports Ubuntu, Debian, Alpine, Kali Linux, openSUSE, SLES and anything else WSL accepts

Get instances running faster

• [x] Use any Docker image as a distro — Docker itself is not required
• [x] Package a configured distro as a portable .wsl file that installs on any machine (templates are deprecated in favour of these)
• [x] Turnkey Linux and other LXC containers (experimental)
• [x] Snippets: keep your setup commands in the app and run them on any instance
• [x] Point the app at your own repository of rootfs images
• [x] Browse a distro's files and copy the ones you pick into another instance — no share, no mount, no Explorer needed

<!-- Unreleased. Containers, Kubernetes and Cloud are built but ship only in debug runs (LicenseManager.unreleasedFeaturesVisible, the gate Pro rides in a debug build); a release has none of them, so the README must not promise them. Lift the comment together with the gate. **Docker and Podman containers** - [x] See every container on the machine — both engines at once — next to your instances - [x] Start, stop, restart, remove and tail the logs of a container without leaving the app - [x] Front end only: it drives the `docker`/`podman` you already have, and installs nothing - [x] The AI chat and the MCP server get the same container tools **Kubernetes clusters** - [x] Every cluster in your kubeconfig, one namespace at a time — built for ten clusters of a hundred apps - [x] Deployments, StatefulSets and DaemonSets with health at a glance, filtered by name, namespace or image - [x] Open a workload to see its pods, tail their logs, restart a pod, roll out a restart, scale, or read the full details - [x] Front end only: it drives the `kubectl` you already have, and never rewrites your kubeconfig or switches your context - [x] The AI chat and the MCP server can read your clusters too — workloads, pods, events, resource usage and searchable pod logs — and only read them: nothing there can restart, scale or delete anything **Deploy to the cloud** *(beta)* - [x] Push a whole instance to a brand-new Hetzner Cloud server in one step — the root filesystem is exported, uploaded and started there as a container - [x] The server is created for you: size, location and base image, with cloud-init installing Docker and your own SSH key authorized for `root` - [x] Works from macOS too: a Linux VM's root filesystem is read out of the running guest, since its disk image is a bootable machine rather than something a container engine can read - [x] Pull it back down again as a new local instance whenever you want, leaving the server running — on macOS that restores into a copy of the VM it was deployed from, which has to still exist and be stopped, because a bare root filesystem has no kernel to boot - [x] See what each server costs per month, power them on and off, and delete them from the same list -->

Configure without editing files by hand

• [x] systemd, automount, default user, start command and start path per distro
• [x] Memory, processors, swap, networking mode, DNS and the rest of .wslconfig
• [x] Mount a physical disk or a VHD into WSL, with partition and filesystem control
• [x] Share host folders into a distro or VM at a mount point you pick, read-only if you like — the AI Workspace included

Work the way you already do

• [x] Open Windows Terminal, VS Code or Explorer straight inside a distro
• [x] Every instance in the Windows Terminal dropdown, kept current while the app runs — contributed as a fragment of its own, so your Terminal settings are never edited
• [x] Manage WSL on a different Windows machine over SSH
• [x] Sync a distro between two machines on your network
• [x] Reach an instance by name: its hostname is kept in your hosts file, so ssh ubuntu.wsl keeps working after a reboot
• [x] Keeps itself up to date: the website and GitHub builds download and install new releases themselves (Store installs are updated by the Store)
• [x] Dark and light themes, available in nine languages

On macOS: native virtual machines (beta)

• [x] The same app manages VMs through Apple's Virtualization framework instead of WSL
• [x] Create Linux VMs from an installer ISO, a cloud image or an exported template
• [x] Create macOS guest VMs from a restore image (Apple Silicon)
• [x] Start, stop, clone, export/import and template VMs like distros
• [x] Run commands inside VMs over auto-provisioned SSH (cloud-init), from the GUI, the AI chat or MCP clients
• [x] A terminal on any VM from its row: an SSH session on a Linux or macOS guest, the serial console where Linux has nothing to SSH to
• [x] Your own ~/.ssh key is authorized in every Linux VM (and created if you have none), so plain ssh user@vm-ip works too
• [x] Every VM gets a login password you can read back from its row, for signing in at the VM's own screen
• [x] Set the account every SSH path signs in as from the same row — a macOS guest's name is typed into Setup Assistant, where the app cannot see it
• [x] Build with scripts/build_macos.sh — bundles the signed vmctl helper

Pro (one-time purchase: a licence key from wslmanager.com/buy, on Windows and macOS alike — never a subscription)

• [x] AI Workspace — run Hermes Agent, OpenClaw, Open WebUI and OpenCode in a dedicated, isolated WSL distro
• [x] One model and endpoint for every AI tool — the assistant's API endpoint, key and model from Settings are what OpenCode, OpenClaw and Hermes use too; set them once, and a tool installed later gets them as well
• [x] AI assistant with tools — the built-in chat can actually operate your WSL: it lists and inspects distros, runs commands, edits config, creates snippets, mounts disks and packages distros through the same tools the MCP server exposes
• [x] Every AI run that changes an instance is saved as a snippet — the commands it ran and what each tool reported, linked from the chat, so you can review it, run it again on a fresh instance or share it
• [x] Sandboxed AI — spin up a throwaway Ubuntu distro and give an AI chat access to only the inside of that sandbox
• [x] Task queue — hand the assistant a checklist and let it work through it, ticking items off as it goes
• [x] MCP server — expose WSL to Claude Desktop, Claude Code, opencode and other MCP clients
• [x] Web dashboard — manage everything from your phone or another computer: scan a QR code, get the whole app in a browser, optionally published beyond your network through a Cloudflare tunnel

The AI features run on credentials you bring — your own OpenAI-compatible API key. No AI service is hosted or included, there is no quota, and no requests pass through anyone else's servers. Pro unlocks the features in the app; it does not buy AI credits. See Free vs Pro.

Why is there a paid tier at all? WSL Manager has been a one-person, spare-time project since 2021, and every feature above — the free ones included — was built in evenings and weekends. Managing your distros and VMs is free and stays free, and the whole app stays open source. Pro is the AI layer on top, and what it earns is what lets maintenance and new features become planned, regular work instead of whatever time is left over. Buy it once, keep it forever, and you are directly funding the next release.

🎁 Launch offer — the first 100 people get Pro for free. Open the checkout with the code START100 already applied and your licence key is on the next page: Windows · macOS. One licence per person; once the 100 are gone the code stops working.

🤖 AI assistant & MCP (Pro)

Everything in this section is part of Pro; the free app has none of it.

The AI assistant is an agent, not just a chat box: it is given the same tool set the MCP server exposes, so when you ask "what distros do I have?" or "install Ubuntu and set my default user" it calls real tools against your WSL rather than guessing. Tool calls are shown inline as it works.

Set up the provider in Settings → Bring Your Own AI Key: any OpenAI-compatible endpoint works (OpenAI, Azure, a LiteLLM proxy, Ollama, LM Studio, …). Enter the base URL, key and model. The Load model list button fills an autocomplete from the provider's /models, and Test connection proves the credentials work before you open the chat.

Don't want any of it? Settings → Bring Your Own AI Key → AI features switches the assistant, the error diagnosis and the AI Workspace off — nothing AI-related is shown, and no workspace environment is set up for you. It is off until you answer: WSL Manager asks once, on the first start after installing or updating, and nothing AI-related runs before that.

Sandboxes (AI Workspace → Add sandbox distro) create a throwaway instance from any catalog image (newest Ubuntu b