Apple Container

Apple's container CLI runs Linux containers as lightweight virtual machines on Apple Silicon Macs. It is OCI-compatible and works with standard container images from any registry. Unlike Docker, each container runs in its own lightweight VM with full kernel isolation rather than sharing the host kernel via namespaces.

Requirements: Apple Silicon Mac + macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later. Some features (user-defined networks) require macOS 26+; the tool runs on macOS 15 with reduced functionality (no automatic DNS).

Installation

Download and run the signed installer (.pkg) from the GitHub releases page, then start the system service:

container system start
# On first run, prompts to install the default Linux kernel — answer Y

To install the kernel non-interactively: