Introduction

Sylve is an open-source control panel for FreeBSD virtualization and storage. It brings Bhyve, FreeBSD Jails, and ZFS into one modern web UI.

The backend is written in Go, and the frontend uses Svelte/SvelteKit. The goal is simple: manage guests, containers, and datasets without living in shell scripts.

If you want to get going right away, run pkg install sylve on a FreeBSD >= 15 machine and open https://<host>:8181 in your browser. For more details, see the getting started guide.

What Sylve Delivers

• Bhyve management: Create, start, stop, snapshot, and console into VMs. Configure CPU, memory, PCI passthrough, VNC, and serial access from the same place.

• Jails with VM-like workflows: Jails follow the same lifecycle model as VMs, with networking, datastores, limits, and console/shell access.

• ZFS-first storage: Manage pools, datasets, disks, and datastores in one interface, with clear VM/Jail storage mapping.

• Network and service controls: Configure physical interfaces, virtual switches, and DHCP scopes, with optional integrations like Samba and libvirt.

Architecture at a Glance

Sylve is organized into four domains: storage, networking, virtualization, and orchestration.

Storage is fully ZFS-driven, including S.M.A.R.T. visibility, pool monitoring, and snapshot operations. Networking pairs physical NICs with user-defined virtual switches that can be published to guests as needed.

Bhyve and Jail management share the same datastore and virtual-switch primitives, so VM and container workflows stay aligned.

All orchestration flows through the Go backend and its REST API. The API surface is defined in docs/swagger/swagger.yaml, making it easy to generate clients and build integrations that match the UI models.

Why Sylve? Why not Proxmox, TrueNAS, or others?

• Light on resources: Sylve runs in roughly ~384 MB RAM even with all major features enabled in a multi-node cluster.

• Self-contained clustering: Sylve uses Raft-based coordination directly, avoiding heavy external clustering stacks and keeping state management predictable.

• Fast deployment: Go backend, Svelte frontend, single-application bundle. No large pre-setup stack required.

• Focused scope: Sylve targets the application layer and leaves the underlying FreeBSD OS untouched.

• UI-first workflows: VM/jail creation, networking, DHCP, cloud-init, TPM-backed disks, and console access are all available from the web UI.

• Permissive license: Sylve is BSD-2-Clause licensed, making it easy to use, modify, and integrate without restrictive terms or viral clauses.