Show HN: Kakehashi – Experimental userspace to run macOS binaries on Linux ARM(github.com)
225 points by vlad_kalinkin 19 hours ago | 56 comments
tl;dr: Kakehashi is an experimental userspace translation layer that runs macOS ARM64 Mach-O binaries natively on Linux aarch64 by mapping a freestanding libSystem and translating BSD syscalls—no JIT or instruction emulation. It currently works with CLI tools like 7zz, curl, and clang probes, running roughly 5× slower than native Linux on syscall-heavy workloads. The pitched use case is CI: even at 5× slowdown, running Darwin CLI tools on cheap Linux ARM runners can be cheaper than GitHub's macOS runners, which cost ~10–12× more per minute.
HN Discussion:
  • Comparison to existing Darling project and suggestion to collaborate or clarify differentiation
  • Enthusiasm for the project with anticipation of future use cases like iOS builds or audio plugins
  • Skepticism about originality and whether code was cleanly derived versus copied from Darling
  • Interest in alternative technical approaches like leveraging original macOS libraries instead of reimplementation
  • Criticism of the project's naming choice