Apple Container
Overview
Apple Container is a native container platform for macOS that runs Linux containers as lightweight virtual machines. It should be used instead of Docker on macOS with Apple silicon.
The container CLI is installed and available. It produces and consumes OCI-compatible container images, so images work with any standard container registry.
Requirements
- Mac with Apple silicon
- macOS 26 or later
Quick Start
# Start the system service (required once)
container system start
# Run a container
container run -it ubuntu:latest /bin/bash
# Build an image
container build -t myimage .
# List containers
container list
# Stop a container
container stop <container-id>
Common Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
container run | Run a container |
container build | Build an image from Dockerfile |
container list | List containers |
container stop | Stop running containers |
container exec | Run command in running container |
container logs | Fetch container logs |
container image list | List images |
container system start | Start the system service |
container system stop | Stop the system service |
Docker Compatibility
The container CLI uses familiar Docker-like syntax:
| Docker Command | Container Command |
|---|---|
docker run | container run |
docker build | container build |
docker ps | container list |
docker stop | container stop |
docker exec | container exec |
docker logs | container logs |
docker images | container image list |
Troubleshooting
Builder Freezes
The buildkit builder can freeze, often due to insufficient memory. To fix:
-
Find and kill the frozen builder process:
ps aux | grep buildkit kill -9 <pid> -
Restart with more resources:
container builder start --cpus 6 --memory 8g
References
- Tutorial - Guided tour building a simple web server
- How-To Guide - Feature-specific guides
- Technical Overview - Architecture and internals
- Command Reference - Full CLI documentation