Apple container

Reference scope: this imported guide mixes release-era and later branch documentation; its 1.0.0+ annotations are not verified introduction versions. Match the installed container --version and subcommand --help to the same upstream release tag before using flags or defaults. Current branch documentation can describe unreleased behavior. No container runtime was executed for this static review.

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). A shared per-user API server and helpers run via launchd, with a separate runtime helper per container. 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).