VMPal

VMPal is a virtual machine app for Apple silicon Macs, made by the TablePlus team. It runs macOS, Windows 11, Ubuntu and Fedora guests with GPU acceleration, and includes built-in MCP integration so AI agents can operate a VM as their own machine. It requires macOS 26 or later.

What It Is

VMPal is a desktop virtualization app for Mac. You pick macOS, Windows 11, Ubuntu or Fedora (newest or older releases, or your own IPSW or ISO), and VMPal downloads and installs it inside the VM's window, including your account and VMPal Tools. macOS and Linux guests use Apple's Virtualization framework, while Windows runs on VMPal's own engine.

Guest Systems and VM Management

The homepage describes Metal on the Mac's GPU for macOS guests. Windows 11 guests get Retina display up to 5K, TPM 2.0, USB devices, Direct3D 11 and OpenGL 4.1. Ubuntu and Fedora guests get OpenGL 4.1, Rosetta for Intel programs and nested virtualization.

Other documented capabilities include:

• Two-way clipboard with files, drag and drop, and shared Mac folders
• Snapshots that save a running or stopped VM and roll back in seconds
• Port forwarding to reach web servers or SSH in a VM
• Live changes to name, disk, shared folders and network while the VM runs
• Per-VM sound and microphone permissions
• Each VM runs as its own Dock app
• Import of Parallels VMs

Running AI Agents in a VM

VMPal gives an AI agent a whole Mac, PC or Linux machine inside a VM. The agent uses the VM's own keyboard and mouse, so it avoids macOS permission prompts on the host, and agent control is opt-in per VM. Snapshots let you roll the machine back if an agent goes wrong. One click adds VMPal's built-in MCP to Claude Code, Codex, Grok CLI or Gemini CLI, either in the VM or on the Mac. The agent can then see the screen, take controls and run commands as the user or as an administrator.