ccheshirecat/flint: Lightweight tool for managing linux virtual machines

A sleek, self-contained, drop-in web UI, CLI and API for KVM virtualization.

flint is a single binary, fully self-contained KVM management solution designed for developers, sysadmins, and advanced home labs. Manage virtual machines efficiently without the overhead of complex platforms.

• Single Drop-In Binary — No installers or dependencies(other than libvirt). Self contained 8.4mb binary including web UI. Run it and you’re operational.
• Focused, Modern UI — Built with Next.js + Tailwind CSS for a clean, responsive interface.
• Frictionless Provisioning — Cloud-Init support, managed image library, and multiple import options.
• Non-Intrusive — flint lives on your host as a tool, never as a platform you’re locked into.

Prerequisites: Linux host with libvirt and qemu-kvm installed. For building from source: Go 1.25.0 and bun/node.js.

Download the precompiled binary from releases, then run ./flint serve.

If you prefer to build from source:

1. Install Go (if not already installed)
2. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/ccheshirecat/flint.git
   cd flint

3. Build the web UI

   cd web
   bun install
   bun run build
   cd ..

   The Next.js export site will be available in web/out/

4. Build the binary

After installation or building:

The web UI will be available at http://localhost:5550. The binary includes the web interface and serves it directly.

Running in background:

# Using nohup
nohup ./flint serve &

# Or set up systemd service
sudo systemctl enable flint
sudo systemctl start flint

Dependencies: For precompiled binary: only libvirt and qemu-kvm. For building from source: Go 1.25.0, libvirt, qemu-kvm, and bun/node.js.

Precompiled binaries (8.4mb) are available for download from the releases page.

GitHub Actions automates building and publishing cross-compiled binaries on tag pushes (e.g., git tag v1.0.0 && git push origin v1.0.0). The workflow builds the Next.js web UI with Bun, embeds it into the Go binary using go:embed, and releases ZIP archives for Linux (AMD64/ARM64), macOS (AMD64), and Windows (AMD64).

Supported Platforms:

• Linux AMD64, ARM64
• Darwin (macOS) AMD64
• Windows AMD64

Binaries are dynamically linked with libvirt as the only runtime dependency and stripped (-ldflags=”-s -w”). See .github/workflows/release.yml for details.

Check out docs.md for more details

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