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apple container
A tool for creating and running Linux containers using lightweight virtual machines on a Mac. It is written in Swift, and optimized for Apple silicon.
Stars
49,625
Forks
1,778
Watchers: 49,625
Language
License: Apache License 2.0
Repository Radar Score
63 / 100
Growth
- 7d
- +0
- 30d
- +0
- %
- 0.0%
Not enough metric snapshots yet to chart growth for this repository.
Score breakdown
- popularity 84
- growth 0
- activity 100
- freshness 100
- community 80
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container is a tool that you can use to create and run Linux containers as lightweight virtual machines on your Mac. It's written in Swift, and optimized for Apple silicon.
The tool consumes and produces OCI-compatible container images, so you can pull and run images from any standard container registry. You can push images that you build to those registries as well, and run the images in any other OCI-compatible application.
container uses the Containerization Swift package for low-level container, image, and process management.
You need a Mac with Apple silicon to run container. To build it, see the BUILDING document.
container is supported on macOS 26, since it takes advantage of new features and enhancements to virtualization and networking in this release. We do not support older versions of macOS and the container maintainers typically will not address issues that cannot be reproduced on macOS 26.
Download the latest signed installer package for container from the GitHub release page.
To install the tool, double-click the package file and follow the instructions. Enter your administrator password when prompted, to give the installer permission to place the installed files under /usr/local.
Start the system service with:
container system startcontainer run --rm alpine echo helloThis pulls the alpine image, runs it in a lightweight Linux VM, prints hello, and
removes the container when it exits. See the tutorial
for a fuller walkthrough that builds and publishes an image of your own.
For both upgrading and downgrading, you can manually download and install the signed installer package by following the steps from initial install or use the update-container.sh script (installed to /usr/local/bin).
If you're upgrading or downgrading, you must stop your existing container:
container system stopTo upgrade to the latest release, simply run the command below:
/usr/local/bin/update-container.shTo downgrade, you must uninstall your existing container (the -k flag keeps your user data, while -d removes it):
/usr/local/bin/uninstall-container.sh -k
/usr/local/bin/update-container.sh -v 0.3.0Start the system service with:
container system startUse the uninstall-container.sh script (installed to /usr/local/bin) to remove container from your system. To remove your user data along with the tool, run:
/usr/local/bin/uninstall-container.sh -dTo retain your user data so that it is available should you reinstall later, run:
/usr/local/bin/uninstall-container.sh -k- Take a guided tour of
containerby building, running, and publishing a simple web server image. - Learn how to use various
containerfeatures. - Read a brief description and technical overview of
container. - Browse the full command reference.
- Build and run
containeron your own development system. - View the project API documentation.
Contributions to container are welcome and encouraged. Please see our main contributing guide for more information.
The container project is currently under active development. Its stability, both for consuming the project as a Swift package and the container tool, is only guaranteed within patch versions, such as between 0.1.1 and 0.1.2. Minor version releases may include breaking changes until we reach a 1.0.0 release.
Repository Radar analysis
Deterministic insights derived from public metadata and our observations — not personal testing or reviews.
Why this repository is interesting
- High absolute popularity (49,625 stars) signals broad adoption.
- Maintained recently (last push 2 weeks ago).
Who should use it
- Developers working primarily with Swift
Potential use cases
- Reference or evaluate Swift open-source approaches in this domain
Strengths
- Recent repository activity
- README present in our index
- Declared license: Apache License 2.0
- Substantial fork count (1,778) suggests reuse and contribution interest
Limitations / considerations
- Insights are derived from public metadata and our observations — not a substitute for code review
What to watch
- Re-check last push, issues, and releases on GitHub before production adoption
Strong signals: Strong community interest · Active maintenance
Source: GitHub (public metadata) + Repository Radar analysis. We do not claim ownership of third-party repositories.