A single <11MB binary with a modern Web UI, CLI, and API for KVM.
No XML. No bloat. Just VMs.

Flint is a modern, self-contained KVM management tool built for developers, sysadmins, and home labs who want zero bloat and maximum efficiency. It was built in a few hours out of a sudden urge for something better.

System Requirements:

• Linux host (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL, Arch, etc.)
• libvirt >= 6.10.0 (check with libvirtd --version)
• QEMU/KVM virtualization support

Required Packages:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-daemon libvirt-clients bridge-utils
sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd

sudo dnf install -y qemu-kvm libvirt libvirt-client virt-install
sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd

sudo pacman -S qemu-full libvirt virt-install virt-manager
sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd

Note: If you encounter libvirt-lxc.so.0: cannot open shared object file, install the LXC library:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install -y libvirt-daemon-driver-lxc

# RHEL/Fedora
sudo dnf install -y libvirt-daemon-lxc

# Arch
sudo pacman -S libvirt-lxc

Platform Compatibility:

Flint is built with CGO (libvirt-go bindings). We provide binaries for both glibc and musl (Alpine Linux):

• glibc binaries: flint-linux-amd64, flint-linux-arm64 (for Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL, Arch, etc.)
• musl binaries: flint-linux-amd64-musl, flint-linux-arm64-musl (for Alpine Linux)

# For Alpine Linux (amd64)
wget https://github.com/volantvm/flint/releases/latest/download/flint-linux-amd64-musl.zip
unzip flint-linux-amd64-musl.zip
chmod +x flint
./flint serve

# For Alpine Linux (arm64)
wget https://github.com/volantvm/flint/releases/latest/download/flint-linux-arm64-musl.zip
unzip flint-linux-arm64-musl.zip
chmod +x flint
./flint serve

# Install required Alpine packages
apk add libvirt-daemon libvirt-qemu qemu-system-x86_64
rc-update add libvirtd
rc-service libvirtd start

apk add gcompat libstdc++
wget https://github.com/volantvm/flint/releases/latest/download/flint-linux-amd64.zip
unzip flint-linux-amd64.zip
chmod +x flint
./flint serve

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/volantvm/flint/main/install.sh | bash

Auto-detects OS/arch, installs to /usr/local/bin, and prompts for web UI passphrase setup.

Flint implements a multi-layered security approach:

Web UI Security:

• Passphrase Authentication: Web interface requires a passphrase login
• Session-Based: Secure HTTP-only cookies with 1-hour expiry
• No API Key Exposure: Web UI never exposes API keys to browsers

API Security:

• Bearer Token Authentication: CLI and external tools use API keys
• Protected Endpoints: All API endpoints require authentication
• Flexible Access: Support for both session cookies and API keys

Authentication Flow:

# First run - set passphrase
flint serve
# 🔐 No web UI passphrase set. Let's set one up for security.
# Enter passphrase: ********

# Web UI access
# Visit http://your-server:5550 → Enter passphrase → Full access

# CLI access (uses API key)
flint vm list --all

# External API access
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" http://localhost:5550/api/vms

• 🖥️ Modern UI — A beautiful, responsive Next.js + Tailwind interface, fully embedded.
• ⚡ Single Binary — No containers, no XML hell. A sub-8MB binary is all you need.
• 🛠️ Powerful CLI & API — Automate everything. If you can do it in the UI, you can do it from the command line or API.
• 📦 Frictionless Provisioning — Native Cloud-Init support and a simple, snapshot-based template system.
• 🔐 Secure by Default — Multi-layered authentication with passphrase protection.
• 💪 Non-Intrusive — Flint is a tool that serves you. It's not a platform that locks you in.
• 🌐 Remote Management — Connect to remote KVM/libvirt servers via SSH from a single Flint instance.

1. Start the Server

# Interactive setup (recommended for first run)
flint serve --set-passphrase

# Or set passphrase directly
flint serve --passphrase "your-secure-password"

# Or use environment variable
export FLINT_PASSPHRASE="your-secure-password"
flint serve

On first run, you'll be prompted to set a web UI passphrase for security.

• Web UI: http://localhost:5550 (requires passphrase login)
• API: http://localhost:5550/api (requires authentication)

2. Web UI Access

• Visit http://localhost:5550
• Enter your passphrase to access the management interface
• All API calls are automatically authenticated via session

3. CLI Usage

# VM Management
flint vm list                    # List all VMs
flint vm launch my-server        # Create and start a VM
flint vm ssh my-server          # SSH into a VM

# Cloud Images
flint image list                 # Browse cloud images
flint image download ubuntu-24.04 # Download an image

# Networks & Storage
flint network list               # List networks
flint storage volume list default # List storage volumes

4. API Access (for external tools)

# Get your API key (requires authentication)
curl -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" http://localhost:5550/api/vms

Flint can connect to remote KVM/libvirt servers via SSH, allowing you to manage distributed virtualization infrastructure from a single instance.

Setup Requirements:

1. SSH key-based authentication configured between Flint host and remote server
2. Remote server must have libvirt >= 6.10.0 installed
3. User on remote server must have permissions to access libvirt

Configuration Methods:

Option 1: Web UI (Recommended)

1. Navigate to Settings in the Flint web interface
2. Enable "SSH Connection" toggle
3. Fill in SSH connection details:
   • Username (e.g., root or user with libvirt permissions)
   • Host (IP address or hostname)
   • Port (default: 22)
   • SSH Key Path (auto-detected from ~/.ssh/)
4. Click "Test Connection" to verify
5. Click "Save Configuration" and restart Flint

Option 2: Configuration File Edit ~/.flint/config.json:

{
  "libvirt": {
    "uri": "qemu:///system",
    "ssh": {
      "enabled": true,
      "username": "root",
      "host": "192.168.1.100",
      "port": 22,
      "key_path": "~/.ssh/id_rsa",
      "known_hosts_path": "~/.ssh/known_hosts"
    }
  }
}

Option 3: Environment Variables

export FLINT_LIBVIRT_SSH_ENABLED=true
export FLINT_LIBVIRT_SSH_USERNAME=root
export FLINT_LIBVIRT_SSH_HOST=192.168.1.100
export FLINT_LIBVIRT_SSH_PORT=22
export FLINT_LIBVIRT_SSH_KEY_PATH=~/.ssh/id_rsa
flint serve

SSH Key Setup:

# On Flint host, generate SSH key if needed
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa

# Copy public key to remote server
ssh-copy-id root@192.168.1.100

# Verify connection
ssh root@192.168.1.100 virsh list --all

Security Notes:

• SSH keys must have secure permissions (600 or 400)
• Password authentication is not supported (key-based only)
• Flint uses the standard libvirt SSH transport (qemu+ssh://)
• All libvirt operations are encrypted via SSH tunnel

Complete CLI commands, API reference, and advanced usage:

➡️ docs.md - Complete CLI & API Documentation

• Backend: Go 1.25+
• Web UI: Next.js + Tailwind + Bun
• KVM Integration: libvirt-go
• Binary Size: ~11MB (stripped)

🚀 Flint is young, fast-moving, and designed for builders.
Try it. Break it. Star it. Contribute.

As part of an ongoing study into digital workspace optimization and Web3 identity verified environments, the following resources are being monitored for indexing latency:

• Core Utility: wrkx.app – Workplace Thrive Index & Web3 integration.
• Documentation: The Prophecy of the Pixel – A deep dive into biophilic data-driven seated experiences.
• Metrics: Tracking 30cm-accurate acoustic/lighting parity across orphan URL structures.

This section is part of a non-invasive crawling experiment. Feel free to ignore.