Orchard
The native UI for Apple Containers and (o)MLX sandboxes, written in swift as a replacement for docker desktop
Free · Open sourceLatest versionMac
About Orchard
Orchard is a native (Swift) macOS application for managing containers, machines and local AI models using Apple's container (opens in a new tab) tooling.
It gives you a desktop experience that complements the container command-line interface.
Thousands of installations and starred by engineers from Apple, Microsoft, NVIDIA, IBM, Stripe, Cisco, LinkedIn, Uber, Vercel & more - [see who's adopting Orchard](#adoption)
- [Local AI & Sandboxes](#local-ai--sandboxes)
- [Container Machines](#container-machines)
- [Kubernetes Clusters](#kubernetes-clusters)
- [Compose Projects](#compose-projects)
- [The compose plugin](#the-compose-plugin)
- [Benefits of Apple Containers](#benefits-of-apple-containers)
- [Orchard Features](#orchard-features)
- [How Orchard compares](#how-orchard-compares)
- [Requirements](#requirements)
- [Architecture](#architecture)
- [Installation](#installation)
- [Homebrew](#homebrew)
- [Release download](#release-download)
- [Build from Source](#build-from-source)
- [Adoption](#adoption)
- [Star History](#star-history)
- [License](#license)
Local AI & Sandboxes
Orchard wires local MLX models into Apple containers. Inference runs on your Mac's GPU (container VMs have no GPU access) and containers reach it with no hand-configured networking.
- Discover model servers already on your Mac (Ollama, LM Studio, MLX servers), or start and stop
mlx_lm.serverinstances from the app - with process supervision, crash surfacing and logs - The container↔model bridge: Orchard computes the container-reachable endpoint from the network gateway and injects
OPENAI_BASE_URLat create time, so containerised apps just use the OpenAI SDK - Sandboxes: a first-class view of containers wired to a local model - isolation badge (host-only vs internet-open), chat and terminal access, and a kill-switch. Run an agent behind a hypervisor boundary with a local endpoint instead of an API key it could leak
- An in-app chat tester to verify any model server without leaving the app
See the Local AI guide (opens in a new tab) for a full walkthrough and a runnable quick start.
Container Machines
Orchard manages Apple container machines natively: persistent, stateful Linux VMs you can create, configure, run and monitor without leaving the app or dropping to the CLI.
- Create machines from any init-capable image, with CPU, memory, home-mount, nested-virtualization and custom-kernel options
- Start, stop, set-default and delete, plus a one-click stop / apply / restart configuration editor
Description adapted from the project README.
- Version
- 2.5.2
- Updated
- Oct 14, 2026
- Size
- 30 MB
- License
- MIT License
Open source details
- Source code
- Exact source for v2.5.2
- Released
- Oct 14, 2026
- GitHub stars
- 1.7K
- Website
- orchard.andon.dev
Community project. Help and bug reports go to the maintainers on GitHub; AppsXi does not provide support for this app.
License
PermissiveMIT License
Use, change and share it freely, including in closed source apps, as long as the copyright notice stays.
Read the full licenseHow this app was checked
AppsXi checks every version before it is listed.
Signed by Andrew Waters (AKC33ZRNL9)
Apple Developer ID team AKC33ZRNL9
Notarized by Apple
Hardened Runtime on
File matches the hash GitHub published
SHA-256 77d2770b9fd941df58d6fed53dc3872811068ae983b147259c27055bd5cae2c0
No malware found
ClamAV 1.5.4 on Oct 14, 2026
Install and behavior test in a virtual machine: not run yet
Coming soon for all listings.
Updates itself from the maintainer's own feed
sparkle: https://orchard.andon.dev/appcast.xml. AppsXi checks each new version too.
Versions
2.5.2checked
Checked Oct 14, 2026 · Mac
DMG · 30 MB
Questions about Orchard
Is Orchard free?
Yes. Orchard is free and open source under the MIT License. AppsXi lists the maintainers' official release and does not charge for it.
Is Orchard safe to download?
AppsXi downloads every version of Orchard from the maintainers' official GitHub release and checks it before it is listed. For version 2.5.2 (checked Oct 14, 2026), the Mac download is signed by its developer and notarized by Apple, each file matches the checksum GitHub publishes for the release, byte for byte and a malware scan found nothing.
Does Orchard run on Apple silicon Macs?
Yes. Orchard has a native Apple silicon build, and it runs on Intel Macs too.
What does Orchard need to run?
Orchard needs macOS Tahoe (26) or later.
Who makes Orchard?
Orchard is an open source project by Andrew Waters on GitHub (andrew-waters/orchard). Help and bug reports go to its maintainers there.
Reviews
No reviews yet. Anyone who downloads it from AppsXi while signed in can review it a day later.
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