From Cloud Bills to Homelab: Why I Repurposed My M1 MacBook Air Link to heading

I wanted to experiment with Kubernetes but quickly ran into a common roadblock: cloud costs. For something as hands-on and experimental as Kubernetes, paying by the hour for clusters I wasn’t using 24/7 didn’t make sense.

That’s when I discovered the homelab community—and realized my unused M1 MacBook Air could become a zero-cost Kubernetes sandbox.

Rather than wipe the machine or dual boot, I used k3d to spin up a lightweight k3s cluster inside Docker. This let me keep macOS as-is while deploying real Kubernetes workloads—ideal for development, experimentation, and learning.

Setting Up the Cluster on macOS Link to heading

Setting up k3d on macOS (especially Apple Silicon) is surprisingly painless. Here’s what you’ll need:

  • Docker Desktop for running containerized workloads
  • Homebrew for easy package installation
  • An M1 or M2 Mac with at least 8 GB of RAM (more is better)

Since I already had Docker and Homebrew installed, the install was a one-liner:

brew install k3d

Once installed, I verified the installation:

k3d version

Then, I created my first cluster:

k3d cluster create homelab

The defaults spin up:

  • 1 control-plane node (running k3s)
  • a built-in load balancer
  • all running inside Docker containers

Now I had a fully functioning Kubernetes cluster—all running locally on my MacBook.

Remote Access & Workflow Link to heading

Because my MacBook Air stays on my home network, I can SSH into it from my main development machine and use kubectl remotely. This separation keeps my local dev environment clean while still giving me a real cluster to deploy to.

This setup has already saved me hours of YAML iteration and CI testing. And unlike cloud clusters, it’s always on—no cold starts or surprise charges.

What’s Next Link to heading

In a future post, I’ll go into how I deployed real workloads to this setup, including:

  • a web scraper and email workflow
  • a locally running n8n instance
  • and maybe even some distributed AI agents (👀)

If you’re interested in running Kubernetes at home—especially on Apple Silicon—k3d is a lightweight, no-cost way to get started.

✨ TL;DR Link to heading

  • Don’t let your old M1 MacBook collect dust.
  • Install Docker + Homebrew.
  • brew install k3d and you’re running Kubernetes locally.
  • Save money, learn faster.