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I've been experimenting with tart recently as a means of spinning up quick test environments for management workflows. I've been pleasantly surprised. There's nothing seemingly special under the hood. It's just a cli wrapper around Apple's virtualization framework, but the UI is clean and the basic workflow to get from a IPSW to running VM is very straightforward.

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As a Mac Systems Administrator, I have extensive experience with Tart, having been an early adopter. My role involves rigorously testing various aspects of Mac systems, such as settings, scripts, workflows, and software deployments. Tart has been instrumental in this process, particularly due to its capability to swiftly set up virtual machines (VMs). A key feature I frequently utilize is booting a VM's macOS into Recovery OS, which allows me to disable security settings. This step is crucial for enrolling devices in DEP, despite manual registration being a different process. By disabling SIP, I can activate specific flags that enable DEP-like features.

Their “special sauce” is a well thought-out cli interface. It’s easy to understand, easy to remember, and the things one would need are implemented.

There are many other tools on GitHub which use Apple’s virtualization.framework to do this, but their UX is all horrific compared to tart.

Also want to note availability of GitLab Executor, Buildkite plugin and many more integrations for all kinds of workflows.

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