[Incubation] Lima Incubation Application

[AkihiroSuda]

trafficstars

Lima Incubation Application

v1.5 This template provides the project with a framework to inform the TOC of their conformance to the Incubation Level Criteria.

Project Repo(s): https://github.com/lima-vm/lima Project Site: https://lima-vm.io/ Sub-Projects: https://github.com/lima-vm Communication: https://slack.cncf.io/ (#lima channel)

Project points of contacts: Akihiro Suda (@AkihiroSuda), [email protected]

Incubation Criteria Summary for Lima

Adoption Assertion

The project has been adopted by the following organizations in a testing and integration or production capacity:

• SUSE: https://rancherdesktop.io/
• AWS: https://github.com/runfinch/finch

See also other adopters (DDEV Foundation, NTT Communications, ...):

• https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/discussions/2390

Application Process Principles

Suggested

N/A

Required

• [X] Give a presentation and engage with the domain specific TAG(s) to increase awareness
  • This was completed and occurred on 06-10-2022, and can be discovered at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k7VNetgbuDNyIs_87GLQRH2W5SLgjgOhB6pDyv89MYk/edit#heading=h.nyb77lbc7y9z.

• [X] TAG provides insight/recommendation of the project in the context of the landscape

Done in the tag meeting above

• [X] All project metadata and resources are vendor-neutral.

• [X] Review and acknowledgement of expectations for Sandbox projects and requirements for moving forward through the CNCF Maturity levels.
  • Met during Project's application on 06-10-2024. https://github.com/cncf/sandbox/issues/207

• [ ] Due Diligence Review.

Completion of this due diligence document, resolution of concerns raised, and presented for public comment satisifies the Due Diligence Review criteria.

• [X] Additional documentation as appropriate for project type, e.g.: installation documentation, end user documentation, reference implementation and/or code samples.

https://lima-vm.io/docs/

Governance and Maintainers

Note: this section may be augmented by the completion of a Governance Review from TAG Contributor Strategy.

Suggested

• [x] Clear and discoverable project governance documentation.

https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/governance/

• [X] Governance has continuously been iterated upon by the project as a result of their experience applying it, with the governance history demonstrating evolution of maturity alongside the project's maturity evolution.

See:

• https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/commits/master/website/content/en/docs/Community

• https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/commits/master/website/content/en/docs/community

• [X] Governance is up to date with actual project activities, including any meetings, elections, leadership, or approval processes.

• [X] Governance clearly documents vendor-neutrality of project direction.

https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/governance/ clearly says "As a Cloud Native Computing Foundation project, Lima will keep its vendor-neutrality."

• [X] Document how the project makes decisions on leadership, contribution acceptance, requests to the CNCF, and changes to governance or project goals.

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/governance/

• [X] Document how role, function-based members, or sub-teams are assigned, onboarded, and removed for specific teams (example: Security Response Committee).

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/governance/

• [X] Document a complete maintainer lifecycle process (including roles, onboarding, offboarding, and emeritus status).

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/governance/

• [X] Demonstrate usage of the maintainer lifecycle with outcomes, either through the addition or replacement of maintainers as project events have required.

e.g., https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/pull/2383

• [X] If the project has subprojects: subproject leadership, contribution, maturity status documented, including add/remove process.

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/subprojects/

Required

• [X] Document complete list of current maintainers, including names, contact information, domain of responsibility, and affiliation.

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/governance/ and in https://github.com/cncf/foundation/blob/main/project-maintainers.csv

• [X] A number of active maintainers which is appropriate to the size and scope of the project.

4 maintainers.

• [X] Code and Doc ownership in Github and elsewhere matches documented governance roles.

• [X] Document agreement that project will adopt CNCF Code of Conduct.

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/governance/

• [X] CNCF Code of Conduct is cross-linked from other governance documents.

Linked from https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/governance/

• [X] All subprojects, if any, are listed.

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/subprojects/

Contributors and Community

Note: this section may be augmented by the completion of a Governance Review from TAG Contributor Strategy.

Suggested

• [X] Contributor ladder with multiple roles for contributors.

Two roles: Committer (Full maintainership) and Reviewer (Limited maintainership, no git commit access) See https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/governance/.

Required

• [X] Clearly defined and discoverable process to submit issues or changes.

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/contributing/

• [X] Project must have, and document, at least one public communications channel for users and/or contributors.

GitHub and Slack are documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/

• [X] List and document all project communication channels, including subprojects (mail list/slack/etc.). List any non-public communications channels and what their special purpose is.

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/

• [X] Up-to-date public meeting schedulers and/or integration with CNCF calendar.

This is completed as no-op, as the project has no sync meeting due to timezone diversity

• [X] Documentation of how to contribute, with increasing detail as the project matures.

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/contributing/

• [X] Demonstrate contributor activity and recruitment.

More than 120 contributors: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/graphs/contributors

Engineering Principles

Suggested

• [X] Roadmap change process is documented.

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/roadmap/

• [X] History of regular, quality releases.

• v1.0 (Nov 2024): changed the default VM driver on macOS from QEMU to Virtualization.framework
• v0.23 (Aug 2024): enhanced the templating system
• v0.22 (May 2024): removed the support for vde_vmnet (deprecated since Sep 2022), in favor of the new socket_vmnet
• v0.21 (Mar 2024): added the support for limactl start-at-login and inotify
• v0.20 (Jan 2024) added the support for propagating the timezone from the host. Also fixed incompatibility with Go 1.22
• v0.19 (Dec 2023): improved stability on ARM Mac
• v0.18 (Oct 2023): added the support for WSL2

See https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/releases.

Required

• [X] Document project goals and objectives that illustrate the project’s differentiation in the Cloud Native landscape as well as outlines how this project fulfills an outstanding need and/or solves a problem differently.

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/ and in https://lima-vm.io/docs/faq/.

• [X] Document what the project does, and why it does it - including viable cloud native use cases.

Same as above.

• [X] Document and maintain a public roadmap or other forward looking planning document or tracking mechanism.

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/roadmap/

• [X] Document overview of project architecture and software design that demonstrates viable cloud native use cases, as part of the project's documentation.

Documented in:

• https://lima-vm.io/docs/config/vmtype/

• https://lima-vm.io/docs/dev/internals/#vm-lifecycle

• [X] Document the project's release process.

Documented in https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/governance/#release-process

Security

Note: this section may be augemented by a joint-assessment performed by TAG Security.

Suggested

N/A

Required

• [X] Clearly defined and discoverable process to report security issues.

Documented in https://github.com/lima-vm/.github/blob/main/SECURITY.md

• [X] Enforcing Access Control Rules to secure the code base against attacks (Example: two factor authentication enforcement, and/or use of ACL tools.)

All the Committers have 2FA enabled

• [X] Document assignment of security response roles and how reports are handled.

Documented in https://github.com/lima-vm/.github/blob/main/SECURITY.md

• [X] Document Security Self-Assessment.

Documented in https://github.com/cncf/tag-security/blob/main/community/assessments/projects/lima/self-assessment.md

• [X] Achieve the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF) Best Practices passing badge.

Passing

Ecosystem

Suggested

N/A

Required

• [X] Publicly documented list of adopters, which may indicate their adoption level (dev/trialing, prod, etc.)

• Rancher Desktop by SUSE: Kubernetes and container management to the desktop
• Colima by Abiola Ibrahim: Docker (and Kubernetes) on macOS with minimal setup
• Finch by AWS: Finch is a command line client for local container development
• Podman Desktop by Red Hat: Podman Desktop GUI has a plug-in for Lima virtual machines

See https://lima-vm.io/docs/community/.

• [X] Used in appropriate capacity by at least 3 independent + indirect/direct adopters, (these are not required to be in the publicly documented list of adopters)

(See the list above)

The project provided the TOC with a list of adopters for verification of use of the project at the level expected, i.e. production use for graduation, dev/test for incubation.

• [x] TOC verification of adopters.

Refer to the Adoption portion of this document.

• [X] Clearly documented integrations and/or compatibility with other CNCF projects as well as non-CNCF projects.

Lima was made so as to promote containerd (CNCF Graduated) including nerdctl (contaiNERD ctl) to Mac desktops. Lima can be used with Docker, Podman, k3s (CNCF Sandbox), Kubernetes, and other container engines too.

See https://lima-vm.io/docs/.

Additional Information

N/A

---

Process: https://github.com/cncf/toc/blob/main/process/README.md#applying-to-become-an-incubating-or-graduating-project

cc @jandubois @afbjorklund @balajiv113 (Committers of Lima)

[AkihiroSuda]

@TheFoxAtWork Is anyone assigned for this?

[TheFoxAtWork]

@AkihiroSuda not yet- this project looks like its number 14 in the TOC queue https://github.com/orgs/cncf/projects/27/views/9 click on applications to move levels, left-most common.

We'll be making sure the applications currently in the queue are ready (meeting the criteria) before a TOC member picks them up for assignment

[TheFoxAtWork]

@rochaporto will triage

[rochaporto]

Thanks @AkihiroSuda .

In preparation for Lima to be picked up by a TOC member please:

• review the definition of an adopter
• verify 5-7 project adopters that can and are willing to be interviewed by the TOC reviewer(s) and submit information for each adopter to the Adopter Interview Questionnaire form.

[rochaporto]

I see 4 adopters submitted already. We ideally would like one more @AkihiroSuda but i believe this project is ready to go ahead.

[angellk]

Confirmed list of submitted Adopters - moving to 'Ready for assignment'

cc: @rochaporto

[chadbeaudin]

Meeting scheduled for 5/28/25, 0400 Mountain Time with @rochaporto and Akihiro Suda

[chadbeaudin]

Invites have been sent out to adopters asking them to schedule an interview with Ricardo and I using Calendly.

[rochaporto]

Quick update.

DD is advancing well with a few requests to the project (some suggestions others requirements as per the CNCF incubation DD template):

• Documentation: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/issues/3797 https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/issues/3796 https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/issues/3793 https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/issues/3792
• Code ownership and access control: https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/issues/3795 https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/issues/3794

1 adopter interview has been completed, 2 more are scheduled in the next few days.

[chadbeaudin]

Today I was able to get the final interview got scheduled with Josh Soref for this Friday 8/22.

[chadbeaudin]

Final interview was held today.. @rochaporto wrote up a summary which I am now reviewing.

[mrbobbytables]

/dd in-comment-period

[angellk]

More than 2 weeks have passed since the DD has been out for public comment. Moving to a vote.

/vote

[git-vote[bot]]

Vote created

@angellk has called for a vote on [Incubation] Lima Incubation Application (#1348).

The members of the following teams have binding votes:

Team
@cncf/cncf-toc-voters

Non-binding votes are also appreciated as a sign of support!

How to vote

You can cast your vote by reacting to this comment. The following reactions are supported:

In favor	Against	Abstain
👍	👎	👀

Please note that voting for multiple options is not allowed and those votes won't be counted.

The vote will be open for 5months 29days 19h 12m. It will pass if at least 66% of the users with binding votes vote In favor 👍. Once it's closed, results will be published here as a new comment.

[git-vote[bot]]

Vote status

So far 45.45% of the users with binding vote are in favor and 0.00% are against (passing threshold: 66%).

Summary

In favor	Against	Abstain	Not voted
5	0	0	6

Binding votes (5)

User	Vote	Timestamp
TheFoxAtWork	In favor	2025-10-09 13:34:34.0 +00:00:00
angellk	In favor	2025-10-09 13:12:04.0 +00:00:00
chadbeaudin	In favor	2025-10-09 15:28:31.0 +00:00:00
kfaseela	In favor	2025-10-09 13:39:05.0 +00:00:00
rochaporto	In favor	2025-10-09 13:14:07.0 +00:00:00
@dims	Pending
@linsun	Pending
@kevin-wangzefeng	Pending
@chira001	Pending
@jeremyrickard	Pending
@kgamanji	Pending

[git-vote[bot]]

Vote status

So far 45.45% of the users with binding vote are in favor and 0.00% are against (passing threshold: 66%).

Summary

In favor	Against	Abstain	Not voted
5	0	0	6

Binding votes (5)

User	Vote	Timestamp
TheFoxAtWork	In favor	2025-10-09 13:34:34.0 +00:00:00
angellk	In favor	2025-10-09 13:12:04.0 +00:00:00
chadbeaudin	In favor	2025-10-09 15:28:31.0 +00:00:00
kfaseela	In favor	2025-10-09 13:39:05.0 +00:00:00
rochaporto	In favor	2025-10-09 13:14:07.0 +00:00:00
@dims	Pending
@linsun	Pending
@kevin-wangzefeng	Pending
@chira001	Pending
@jeremyrickard	Pending
@kgamanji	Pending

[git-vote[bot]]

Vote status

So far 54.55% of the users with binding vote are in favor and 0.00% are against (passing threshold: 66%).

Summary

In favor	Against	Abstain	Not voted
6	0	0	5

Binding votes (6)

User	Vote	Timestamp
TheFoxAtWork	In favor	2025-10-09 13:34:34.0 +00:00:00
angellk	In favor	2025-10-09 13:12:04.0 +00:00:00
chadbeaudin	In favor	2025-10-09 15:28:31.0 +00:00:00
kevin-wangzefeng	In favor	2025-10-12 11:54:27.0 +00:00:00
kfaseela	In favor	2025-10-09 13:39:05.0 +00:00:00
rochaporto	In favor	2025-10-09 13:14:07.0 +00:00:00
@dims	Pending
@linsun	Pending
@chira001	Pending
@jeremyrickard	Pending
@kgamanji	Pending

Non-binding votes (1)

User	Vote	Timestamp
tao12345666333	In favor	2025-10-12 8:30:08.0 +00:00:00

[git-vote[bot]]

Vote status

So far 54.55% of the users with binding vote are in favor and 0.00% are against (passing threshold: 66%).

Summary

In favor	Against	Abstain	Not voted
6	0	0	5

Binding votes (6)

User	Vote	Timestamp
TheFoxAtWork	In favor	2025-10-09 13:34:34.0 +00:00:00
angellk	In favor	2025-10-09 13:12:04.0 +00:00:00
chadbeaudin	In favor	2025-10-09 15:28:31.0 +00:00:00
kevin-wangzefeng	In favor	2025-10-12 11:54:27.0 +00:00:00
kfaseela	In favor	2025-10-09 13:39:05.0 +00:00:00
rochaporto	In favor	2025-10-09 13:14:07.0 +00:00:00
@dims	Pending
@linsun	Pending
@chira001	Pending
@jeremyrickard	Pending
@kgamanji	Pending

Non-binding votes (1)

User	Vote	Timestamp
tao12345666333	In favor	2025-10-12 8:30:08.0 +00:00:00

[AkihiroSuda]

/check-vote

[git-vote[bot]]

Votes can only be checked once a day.

[git-vote[bot]]

Vote closed

The vote passed! 🎉

100.00% of the users with binding vote were in favor and 0.00% were against (passing threshold: 66%).

Summary

In favor	Against	Abstain	Not voted
11	0	0	0

Binding votes (11)

User	Vote	Timestamp
@TheFoxAtWork	In favor	2025-10-09 13:34:34.0 +00:00:00
@angellk	In favor	2025-10-09 13:12:04.0 +00:00:00
@chadbeaudin	In favor	2025-10-09 15:28:31.0 +00:00:00
@chira001	In favor	2025-10-13 22:32:45.0 +00:00:00
@dims	In favor	2025-10-13 14:58:12.0 +00:00:00
@jeremyrickard	In favor	2025-10-13 16:55:46.0 +00:00:00
@kevin-wangzefeng	In favor	2025-10-12 11:54:27.0 +00:00:00
@kfaseela	In favor	2025-10-09 13:39:05.0 +00:00:00
@kgamanji	In favor	2025-10-13 15:55:16.0 +00:00:00
@linsun	In favor	2025-10-13 14:58:44.0 +00:00:00
@rochaporto	In favor	2025-10-09 13:14:07.0 +00:00:00

Non-binding votes (1)

User	Vote	Timestamp
@tao12345666333	In favor	2025-10-12 8:30:08.0 +00:00:00

[riaankleinhans]

Moving levels check list started here: https://github.com/cncf/toc/issues/1922