lazyvirtmanager

A terminal UI (TUI) to manage KVM/libvirt virtual machines — like lazygit or lazydocker, but for virsh. No need to remember libvirt commands.

Layout

┌───────────────────┬────────────────────────────────┐
│ Virtual machines  │ Commands (for selected VM)      │
│  win10-zscaler    │  Start  Shutdown  Force stop    │
│  win11-vs2022     │  Pause  Resume    Reboot        │
│  ...    [state]   │  Save state  Remove saved       │
│                   ├────────────────────────────────┤
│                   │ Snapshots (of selected VM)      │
│                   │  name  created  state  current  │
│                   │  New   Revert   Delete          │
└───────────────────┴────────────────────────────────┘

• Left column — every VM with its current state (running / stopped / paused / …). Move the row cursor to select a VM.
• Top-right — lifecycle commands for the selected VM. Buttons enable/disable based on the VM state.
• Bottom-right — the snapshots of the selected VM, with create / revert / delete.

State is read through the libvirt API, so it is correct regardless of system locale.

Requirements

• libvirt-python installed system-wide (via apt install python3-libvirt) — already present on this machine.
• Membership in the libvirt group to use qemu:///system without sudo.

Setup

./setup.sh

This creates .venv (with --system-site-packages so it reuses the system libvirt-python), bootstraps pip with get-pip.py, and installs Textual into it. No sudo/apt is required.

Run

./run.sh                             # defaults to qemu:///system
./run.sh --connect qemu:///session   # user session VMs

You can also switch the connection at runtime with the c key.

Key bindings

Key	Action
s	Start
S	Shutdown (ACPI)
x	Force stop (destroy)
p	Pause / Resume (toggle)
r	Reboot
w	Save state (managedsave)
W	Remove saved state
o	Open virt-viewer (VM display)
n	New snapshot
v	Revert to selected snapshot
d	Delete selected snapshot
c	Change connection URI
R	Refresh now
q	Quit

Destructive actions (force stop, revert, delete snapshot) ask for confirmation.

Building a single-file executable

A self-contained executable can be built with PyInstaller (no Docker needed):

./build-exe.sh

This bundles Python, Textual, the libvirt-python binding and libvirt.so.0 into dist/lazyvirtmanager. Run it from a terminal (it is a TUI):

./dist/lazyvirtmanager                    # qemu:///system
./dist/lazyvirtmanager -c qemu:///session

Pass -i to also install the built executable to ~/.local/bin:

./build-exe.sh -i

Notes about the executable:

• The bundled libvirt is only the client; it connects to the host's libvirtd, so the invoking user must still be in the libvirt group.
• virt-viewer is not bundled — it stays a host dependency. The View command works if virt-viewer is installed on the host; otherwise it shows an error.
• Built against the build machine's glibc, so it runs on systems with an equal or newer glibc. Build on the oldest distribution you need to support for wider portability.

Notes

• Save state uses libvirt managedSave: it saves RAM + state to a libvirt-managed file and stops the VM; the next Start resumes from that saved state.
• The VM list and snapshot list auto-refresh every 2 seconds.