apple-container

name	apple-container
description	Build, run, and manage OCI/Linux containers as lightweight per-container VMs on Apple-silicon macOS using Apple's open-source container CLI, no Docker daemon required.
category	devops
risk	critical
source	https://github.com/sanjay3290/ai-skills/tree/main/skills/apple-container
source_repo	sanjay3290/ai-skills
source_type	community
date_added	2026-07-09
author	sanjay3290
tags	["macos","containers","oci","apple-silicon"]
tools	["claude","cursor","gemini"]
license	Apache-2.0
license_source	https://github.com/sanjay3290/ai-skills/blob/main/LICENSE

Apple container

When to Use

• Use when building, running, or managing OCI/Linux containers on Apple-silicon macOS with Apple's open-source container CLI
• Use when you want lightweight per-container VMs instead of a Docker daemon
• Use when translating Docker-style workflows (build, run, exec, logs, networking) to Apple's container tooling

Apple's container is an open-source CLI for building, running, and managing OCI/Linux containers on Apple-silicon Macs. Each container runs inside its own lightweight virtual machine (backed by the Containerization framework and the Virtualization API), so there is no shared daemon like Docker — services run per-user via launchd. Images are standard OCI artifacts, so they interoperate with Docker registries and other OCI tooling. The CLI is deliberately Docker-like (container run, container build, and image ops under container image push/pull), but it is a distinct tool: do not assume Docker command paths, flags, defaults, or daemon behavior carry over (e.g. there is no container images/push/pull top-level command — image verbs live under container image).

Safety Gate

Container installation, service startup, image pulls, builds, runs, registry login, pushes, and resource cleanup change local or remote state. Explain the exact command, image registry, mounts, ports, privileges, and data-persistence impact, then obtain explicit user approval before executing it. Do not provide registry credentials, mount sensitive paths, or expose ports without the user's explicit instruction.

Requirements

• Apple silicon only (M1 or later). Intel Macs are not supported.
• macOS 26 (Tahoe) is the officially supported target. The maintainers do not support older macOS and typically will not fix issues that can't be reproduced on 26. The binary still runs on macOS 15 (Sequoia) but with reduced networking: only the single default subnet is available, and the container network group and --network flag error out. macOS-26-gated features are called out throughout the reference files.
• Version: this skill documents the 1.0.0 release (the fullest feature set). The machine group, container cp, container export, container prune, container image prune, , and were (not in 0.7.1) — features that postdate 0.7.1 are flagged in the reference files. Run and to see what your installed build supports.