FEATURES
Menu bar
Kiri puts a small icon in the macOS menu bar when you open it, and keeps it there after you close the window. From it you can see whether the Linux VM is running, open any running container, and start or stop the VM, without bringing the window back.
What closing the window does
Closing Kiri’s window (Cmd W, or the red button) only closes the window. The app keeps running in the menu bar and the Dock, the engine keeps serving the docker CLI, and your containers keep running. Click Kiri in the Dock, or Open Kiri in the menu, to bring the window back.
Quit Kiri (Cmd Q) closes the window and takes the icon out of the menu bar, but the engine still runs: kiri daemon is its own process, started at login by Kiri’s LaunchAgent, and it sleeps by itself after a minute with nothing to do. Your docker commands keep working after a quit.
The menu
Click the icon to open the menu. Kiri builds it again each time it opens, from what the window last heard from the engine.
From the top, with a separator between each group:
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| Linux VM: Running | The VM’s state: Running, Asleep or Not running (the engine isn’t reachable). Greyed out: it’s information, not an action. |
| Your running containers | One line each, up to 12, then and N more…, which opens the window. With none running, the menu says No containers running. |
| Open Kiri (Cmd O) | Brings the window forward. |
| Start Linux VM or Stop Linux VM | Stop when the VM is running, Start otherwise. |
| Quit Kiri (Cmd Q) | Quits the window and the menu bar icon. The engine keeps running. |
Opening a container
Click a running container to open it. If it publishes a port and has a local name, its address opens in your browser: http://web.shop.kiri.local, or https:// once HTTPS is on. A container without a published port opens its own page in the window instead, with its details, logs, command line and files (see The window).
Start and Stop
Stop Linux VM stops every running container (each gets up to 10 seconds to exit), then lets the VM sleep. That gives all of its memory back to macOS. Start Linux VM starts the engine if it isn’t running and wakes the VM. They do the same as the Start and Stop button at the bottom of the window’s sidebar.
You rarely need either. The VM wakes on its own when a docker command or the window asks it for something, in about 0.15 s, and goes back to sleep after 60 seconds with no running containers, no exec sessions and no requests. The menu just follows along.
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