Automatic Startup

Lima instances can be registered to start automatically using limactl autostart. Two conditions are supported: login (start when the user logs in) and boot (start at system boot, before any user session). This replaces the older limactl start-at-login command, which is deprecated as of Lima v2.2.

Starting instances automatically

Use limactl autostart enable to register a Lima instance to start automatically. Use limactl autostart disable to remove the registration.

At user login (macOS and Linux)

# Register
limactl autostart enable default

# Unregister
limactl autostart disable default

On macOS this installs a LaunchAgent in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/. On Linux it installs a systemd user service. The instance starts in the background on the next login and on subsequent logins.

At system boot, without a user session (macOS only)

For headless macOS servers where no user session is expected, use --condition=boot. This installs a system LaunchDaemon that starts the instance at boot, before any user logs in.

# Register (prompts for sudo once)
limactl autostart enable --condition=boot k3s

# Unregister
limactl autostart disable k3s

The --user flag specifies which macOS user the instance runs as (default: $USER). The plist is installed to /Library/LaunchDaemons/io.lima-vm.daemon.<instance>.plist.

Lima < 2.2

Use limactl start-at-login (equivalent to limactl autostart enable --condition=login):

# Register
limactl start-at-login default

# Unregister
limactl start-at-login --enabled=false default