Container-Compose¶
Container-Compose is a Swift CLI that brings Docker Compose support to Apple Container. It parses standard compose.yaml files and orchestrates services using Apple's native container runtime on macOS — no Docker daemon required.
Get started¶
- Quickstart — Up and running in 2 minutes.
- CLI Reference — Every subcommand, every flag.
- Tutorials — End-to-end walkthroughs paired with working sample compose files.
- Limitations & Gotchas — What does not work today and practical workarounds.
Reference & status¶
- Compose-Spec Coverage — Live matrix of which compose-spec fields are implemented (canonical source of truth).
- Feature Parity Inventory — Tiered split of gaps: silent-failure bugs, wireable now, fork-patch path, upstream FR, won't-do.
- Upstream / Fork Status — What we depend on from
full-chaos/containerand what's blocked onapple/container. - API Clients — Generated SDK channels and install snippets for the daemon's OpenAPI surface.
- Troubleshooting — Symptom-to-fix reference for common problems.
For contributors¶
- Documentation Standards — Templates and style rules for adding new docs.
- Plans — Active and historical engineering plans.
Compatibility¶
| Requirement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Silicon Mac | Required | Apple Container only runs on Apple Silicon. |
| macOS 15 (Sequoia) | Supported | DNS resolution requires manual configuration. |
| macOS 26 (Tahoe) | Recommended | Native DNS support and full feature parity. |
| Apple Container | Required | Install from github.com/apple/container/releases and start with container system start. |
What it isn't¶
Container-Compose is a translator: it converts compose-spec YAML into invocations of the container CLI. It is not a Docker daemon, not a standalone container runtime, and not a Compose-spec implementation by Docker. Compose-spec features that don't have an apple/container equivalent are decoded with a runtime warning rather than silently broken — see Feature Parity for the current gap landscape.