docker-local-build

name	docker-local-build
description	Build and test Kurtosis from source on local Docker. Compiles all components (engine, core, files-artifacts-expander), builds Docker images, installs the CLI, and restarts the engine. Use when developing Kurtosis and testing changes locally with Docker.
compatibility	Requires Go 1.23+, Docker, and docker buildx.
metadata	{"author":"ethpandaops","version":"1.0"}

Docker Local Build

Build all Kurtosis components from source and test them locally on Docker.

Overview

This skill builds the full Kurtosis stack for local Docker testing:

• Engine — Docker image kurtosistech/engine
• Core (APIC) — Docker image kurtosistech/core
• Files Artifacts Expander — Docker image kurtosistech/files-artifacts-expander
• CLI — binary at .tmp/kurtosis, installed to /usr/local/bin/kurtosis

All images are tagged with the current git short SHA (+ -dirty if uncommitted changes exist) via scripts/get-docker-tag.sh. The same tag is compiled into the CLI as KurtosisVersion.

Quick build (recommended)

Run the wrapper script from the repo root. It handles version generation, image builds, CLI compilation, installation, and engine reset:

./scripts/local-build.sh

Environment variables

Variable	Default	Description
INSTALL_PATH	/usr/local/bin/kurtosis	Where to install the CLI binary
BUILD_IMAGES	true	Set to false to skip Docker image builds (CLI only)
DEBUG_IMAGE	false	Build debug images with delve debugger
PODMAN_MODE	false	Use podman instead of docker
RESET_KURTOSIS_AFTER_BUILD	true	Stop engine and clean containers after build

Examples

# Full build + install + reset
./scripts/local-build.sh

# CLI only (skip image builds)
BUILD_IMAGES=false ./scripts/local-build.sh

# Build with debug images
DEBUG_IMAGE=true ./scripts/local-build.sh

# Install to a custom path
INSTALL_PATH=/tmp/kurtosis ./scripts/local-build.sh

# Skip engine reset (keep running enclaves)
RESET_KURTOSIS_AFTER_BUILD=false ./scripts/local-build.sh

Manual build (step by step)

1. Generate version constants

./scripts/generate-kurtosis-version.sh

This writes the git-based version tag into kurtosis_version/kurtosis_version.go.

2. Build Docker images

The existing build scripts handle binary compilation, unit tests, and Docker image building:

# Build engine image (compiles binary, runs tests, builds Docker image)
./engine/scripts/build.sh

# Build core + files-artifacts-expander images
./core/scripts/build.sh

These scripts:

• Detect the host architecture (amd64/arm64)
• Cross-compile the Go binary for linux
• Run unit tests
• Build a Docker image tagged kurtosistech/<component>:<git-sha>
• Use scripts/docker-image-builder.sh which creates a buildx builder, builds for the local platform with --load, and cleans up

3. Build the CLI

go build -o .tmp/kurtosis ./cli/cli/

4. Install

cp .tmp/kurtosis /usr/local/bin/kurtosis

5. Reset the engine

kurtosis engine stop || true
docker ps -aq --filter "label=com.kurtosistech.app-id=kurtosis" | xargs -r docker rm -f
docker ps -aq --filter "name=kurtosis-engine" | xargs -r docker rm -f
docker ps -aq --filter "name=kurtosis-reverse-proxy" | xargs -r docker rm -f
docker ps -aq --filter "name=kurtosis-logs-collector" | xargs -r docker rm -f
docker ps -aq --filter "name=kurtosis-api--" | xargs -r docker rm -f

6. Start and test

kurtosis engine start
kurtosis run github.com/ethpandaops/ethereum-package
kurtosis clean -a

Key files

Component	Source	Dockerfile	Image
Engine	engine/server/engine/main.go	engine/server/Dockerfile	kurtosistech/engine
Core (APIC)	core/server/api_container/main.go	core/server/Dockerfile	kurtosistech/core
Files Artifacts Expander	core/files_artifacts_expander/main.go	core/files_artifacts_expander/Dockerfile	kurtosistech/files-artifacts-expander
CLI	cli/cli/main.go	N/A	N/A
Version	kurtosis_version/kurtosis_version.go	N/A	N/A
Version generator	scripts/generate-kurtosis-version.sh	N/A	N/A
Docker tag	scripts/get-docker-tag.sh	N/A	N/A
Image builder	scripts/docker-image-builder.sh	N/A	N/A

Iterating

After making code changes:

1. Re-run ./scripts/local-build.sh (or set BUILD_IMAGES=false if only CLI changed)
2. The version tag changes automatically with each commit (SHA-based)
3. If you have uncommitted changes, the tag gets a -dirty suffix

Common issues

Symptom	Fix
go build fails with import errors	Run go mod tidy in the failing module directory
Docker build fails with .dockerignore error	Ensure .dockerignore exists in the component's server directory
Engine starts but uses old images	The tag is SHA-based; make sure the built image tag matches kurtosis version output
webapp directory not found warning	Normal when building without enclave-manager; an empty placeholder is created automatically
buildx builder conflict	Remove stale builders: docker buildx rm kurtosis-docker-builder and docker context rm kurtosis-docker-builder-context
Version mismatch between CLI and engine	Rebuild everything from the same commit; version is compiled into the CLI binary