Introduction to thresh
AI-powered container environment manager for Windows, Linux, and macOS
thresh is a .NET 10 Native AOT command-line tool that provisions container-based development environments using AI-generated blueprints. Create development environments in seconds with natural language prompts.
Architecture Overview
thresh provides isolated development environments using lightweight containers across multiple platforms:
Key Features
- 🌍 Multi-Platform - Windows/WSL2, Linux/Docker/nerdctl, macOS/containerd
- 🤖 AI-Powered - GitHub Copilot CLI integration for intelligent blueprint generation
- ⚡ Parallel Creation - Create multiple environments simultaneously (10x faster)
- 📦 Built-in Blueprints - Alpine, Ubuntu, Debian, Python, Node.js, and more
- 🗑️ Blueprint Management - List, generate, and delete blueprints
- 💬 Interactive AI Chat - Streaming responses for blueprint assistance
- 🚀 Native Binary - No .NET runtime required (5-13 MB)
- 📊 System Metrics - Monitor CPU, memory, storage, and container usage
- 🔧 MCP Server - Model Context Protocol for VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf
Getting Started by Platform
Choose your platform to get started:
🪟 Windows
Get started with thresh on Windows 11 using WSL 2
Requirements:
- Windows 11
- WSL 2 enabled
🐧 Linux
Get started with thresh on Linux using Docker or nerdctl
Requirements:
- Docker or nerdctl/containerd
🍎 macOS
Get started with thresh on macOS (Apple Silicon) using containerd
Requirements:
- macOS (Apple Silicon M1/M2/M3)
- containerd or Docker Desktop
Beta Support
Quick Example
# Install thresh (platform-specific, see guides above)
# Authenticate with GitHub Copilot CLI
copilot
# Then: /login
# List available blueprints
thresh blueprint list
# Create your first environment
thresh up alpine-minimal
# Generate custom blueprint with AI
thresh blueprint generate "Python ML environment with Jupyter" --output python-ml
# Start interactive chat
thresh chat
Platform Support
| Platform | Runtime | Binary Size | Compression | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 11 | WSL2 | ~5 MB | UPX | ✅ Supported |
| Linux | Docker, nerdctl, containerd | ~5 MB | UPX | ✅ Supported |
| macOS (M1/M2/M3) | containerd, Docker | ~13 MB | None* | ✅ Beta |
*macOS binaries are uncompressed to preserve Apple code signing and notarization.
Documentation
- 📚 Windows Guide - Complete Windows setup
- 🐧 Linux Guide - Complete Linux setup
- 🍎 macOS Guide - Complete macOS setup (Beta)
- 🔧 CLI Reference - Complete command documentation
- 🤖 MCP Integration - VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf setup
- 📖 Tutorials - Step-by-step guides
Support
- Issues: GitHub Issues
- Discussions: GitHub Discussions
- Repository: GitHub
Next Steps
Choose your platform to get started:
Happy provisioning! 🚀