Show HN: Container-compose – A Docker-compose like tool for Apple containers

44 Noghartt 14 6/15/2025, 2:53:40 PM github.com ↗
Hey HN, recently Apple release their own container manager tooling, but it's missing a "compose-like" tool.

I'm building this CLI as a side-project and a way to help on the usage with the main tool.

It's in a early version, then at the moment I'm trying to be as much as possible compatible with `docker-compose` config file, and in the current version we're supporting two commands: `up` and `down`.

Comments (14)

fnordian · 5h ago
I hope apple will deliver a docker compatible api soon, so that all the existing tools will just work.
cosmotic · 4h ago
Or Docker migrate to the new API, like they did with QEMU to Virtualization Framework.
daft_pink · 8h ago
Hoping that VSCode supports Apple Containers in a similar way to it supporting Docker Containers. I’ve tried Podman to use less resources on my Mac, but found that the developer tooling in things like VSCode makes Docker a bit sticky.
esseph · 2h ago
Looking at the ecosystem between docker and podman/oci, I hope the OCI tooling gets better.

I know docker is easier to dev on for many currently, it's also been around longer, but there is a widening gap between docker deployments in production and podman deployments in production and it isn't nearly as smooth or secure as either should be.

cedws · 8h ago
Is the container CLI actually intended for end users? My impression was that it's just a demo project showing off the Containerization API. I'm guessing that BuildKit will eventually support Apple's container runtime via the Containerization API.
yodon · 12h ago
Any thoughts or insights into why Apple didn't ship docker-compose support?
figmert · 9h ago
It took Podman a good 2 or so years to develop a good docker compatible http api. I presume that's why. There's no point in coming out with all of the features when they can release with some support, and add on top of it.
WhyNotHugo · 7h ago
Even today, some docker-compose features still don’t work with podman. There’s just an absurd amount of subtleties and edge cases, but pretty much all my usages hit one of these or another.
esseph · 2h ago
Biggest reason is that docker / podman/OCI are very different architectures and security models.

I hope there is something new. The tooling and deployment fragmentation is a nightmare.

From a security and open standards pov, we maybe should be moving to podman/OCI.

The docker tooling was often focused on the dev experience and it showed, but it wasn't a system with a good security model and this transition is a large part of that pain.

Noghartt · 12h ago
To be honest, I'm not sure why they didn't already release it supporting a compose-like tool. But my hypothesis is that considering they release a v0.1.0, they tried to be lean on their CLI and maybe they're building something on top of it.
elisiariocouto · 9h ago
Excellent work! Any reason why don’t implement this as a plugin for the container CLI?
Noghartt · 9h ago
Thanks!

> Any reason why don’t implement this as a plugin for the container CLI?

I did a different CLI because, considering that Apple released their v0.1.0, I'm not sure if they're working in some kind of official support for compose YAMLs.

With that in mind, I tried to avoid coupling it into the container CLI, to avoid injecting any kind of breaking change or something else which could cause any issue in the future.

develatio · 9h ago
How does networking between several “services” (containers) work?
Noghartt · 9h ago
The container opens a gateway and each container provides its own local IP (e.g. 192.168.64.2), from what I understood, every services known host machine and can communicate with each other.

On my current implementation, I didn't work with DNS/Network Resolution because I need to understand better what I can/can't do with the API Apple provides, so the only things it does is handling the port mapping using `socat`, as the docs recommends.