colima Documentation

Container runtimes on macOS (and Linux) with minimal setup

30,301 stars Go Go 1 file · ~8,134 tokens #containerd#containerd-compose#containers#docker#docker-compose#incus#k3s#k8s
RAW Doc

Docker & Self-Hosted Deployment Verified OCI

Deploy colima on any server, homelab, or cloud container platform.

1-Click Terminal Command
bash (docker run) 
docker run -d --name colima --restart always abiosoft/colima:latest

1. Project Overview & Quickstart (abiosoft/colima)

File: README.md

Colima - container runtimes on macOS (and Linux) with minimal setup.




Website & Documentation: colima.run | colima.run/docs

Features

Support for Intel and Apple Silicon macOS, and Linux

  • Simple CLI interface with sensible defaults
  • Automatic Port Forwarding
  • Volume mounts
  • Multiple instances
  • Support for multiple container runtimes
    • Docker (with optional Kubernetes)
    • Containerd (with optional Kubernetes)
    • Incus (containers and virtual machines)
  • GPU accelerated containers for AI workloads

Getting Started

Installation

Colima is available on Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix and Mise. Check here for other installation options.

sh
# Homebrew
brew install colima

# MacPorts
sudo port install colima

# Nix
nix-env -iA nixpkgs.colima

# Mise
mise use -g colima@latest

Or stay on the bleeding edge (only Homebrew)

text
brew install --HEAD colima

Usage

Start Colima with defaults

text
colima start

For more usage options

text
colima --help
colima start --help

Or use a config file

text
colima start --edit

Runtimes

On initial startup, Colima initiates with a user specified runtime that defaults to Docker.

Docker

Docker client is required for Docker runtime. Installable with brew install docker.

text
colima start
docker run hello-world
docker ps

You can use the docker client on macOS after colima start with no additional setup.

Containerd

colima start --runtime containerd starts and setup Containerd. You can use colima nerdctl to interact with
Containerd using nerdctl.

text
colima start --runtime containerd
nerdctl run hello-world
nerdctl ps

It is recommended to run colima nerdctl install to install nerdctl alias script in $PATH.

Kubernetes

kubectl is required for Kubernetes. Installable with brew install kubectl.

To enable Kubernetes, start Colima with --kubernetes flag.

text
colima start --kubernetes
kubectl run caddy --image=caddy
kubectl get pods

Interacting with Image Registry

For Docker runtime, images built or pulled with Docker are accessible to Kubernetes.

For Containerd runtime, images built or pulled in the k8s.io namespace are accessible to Kubernetes.

Incus

Requires v0.7.0

Incus client is required for Incus runtime. Installable with brew brew install incus.

colima start --runtime incus starts and setup Incus.

text
colima start --runtime incus
incus launch images:alpine/edge
incus list

You can use the incus client on macOS after colima start with no additional setup.

Note: Running virtual machines on Incus is only supported on m3 or newer Apple Silicon devices.

AI Models (GPU Accelerated)

Requires v0.10.0, Apple Silicon and macOS 13+

Colima supports GPU accelerated containers for AI workloads using the krunkit VM type.

Note: To use krunkit with colima, ensure it is installed. Please follow their installation instructions

Setup and use a model.

text
colima start --runtime docker --vm-type krunkit
colima model run gemma3

Colima supports two model runner backends:

The default registry is the Docker AI Registry. Models can be run by name without a prefix:

sh
colima model run gemma3
colima model run llama3.2
# HuggingFace (Docker Model Runner)
colima model run hf.co/microsoft/Phi-3-mini-4k-instruct-gguf
# Ollama (requires ramalama runner)
colima model run ollama://gemma3 --runner ramalama

See the AI Workloads documentation for more details.

Customizing the VM

The default VM created by Colima has 2 CPUs, 2GiB memory and 100GiB storage.

The VM can be customized either by passing additional flags to colima start.
e.g. --cpu, --memory, --disk, --runtime.
Or by editing the config file with colima start --edit.

NOTE: Disk size can be increased after the VM is created.

Customization Examples

  • create VM with 1CPU, 2GiB memory and 10GiB storage.

    text
    colima start --cpu 1 --memory 2 --disk 10

  • modify an existing VM to 4CPUs and 8GiB memory.

    text
    colima stop
colima start --cpu 4 --memory 8

  • create VM with Rosetta 2 emulation. Requires v0.5.3 and macOS >= 13 (Ventura) on Apple Silicon.

    text
    colima start --vm-type=vz --vz-rosetta

Project Goal

To provide container runtimes on macOS with minimal setup.

What is with the name?

Colima means Containers on Lima.

Since Lima is aka Linux Machines. By transitivity, Colima can also mean Containers on Linux Machines.

The logo was contributed by Daniel Hodvogner. Check this issue for more.

Troubleshooting and FAQs

Check here for Frequently Asked Questions, or visit the online FAQ for a searchable version.

How to Contribute?

Check here for the instructions on contributing to the project.

Community

License

MIT

Sponsoring the Project

If you (or your company) are benefiting from the project and would like to support the contributors, kindly sponsor.

File: docs/FAQ.md

FAQs

How does Colima compare to Lima?

Colima is basically a higher level usage of Lima and utilises Lima to provide Docker, Containerd and/or Kubernetes.

Are Apple Silicon Macs supported?

Colima supports and works on both Intel and Apple Silicon Macs.

Feedbacks would be appreciated.

Are AI workloads supported?

Yes, Colima supports GPU accelerated containers for AI workloads on Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 13 or newer.

To get started, start Colima with Docker runtime and krunkit VM type:

sh
colima start --runtime docker --vm-type krunkit

Then setup and run AI models:

sh
colima model setup
colima model run gemma3

Multiple model registries are supported including HuggingFace (default) and Ollama:

sh
colima model run hf://tinyllama
colima model run ollama://tinyllama

For more options, run colima model --help.

Are older macOS versions supported?

Colima is supported and regularly tested on the latest macOS version. However, Colima requires macOS 13 or newer.

You may be able to build Colima and it's dependencies from source on older macOS version. Colima requires Lima and Qemu.

Does Colima support autostart?

Since v0.5.6 Colima supports foreground mode via the --foreground flag. i.e. colima start --foreground.

If Colima has been installed using brew, the easiest way to autostart Colima is to use brew services.

sh
brew services start colima

Can config file be used instead of cli flags?

Yes, from v0.4.0, Colima support YAML configuration file.

Specifying the config location

Set the $COLIMA_HOME environment variable. When it is not set, the first match wins:

  1. $HOME/.colima, if it exists
  2. $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/colima, if the variable is set
  3. ~/.config/colima, if it exists (the XDG default when the variable is unset)
  4. otherwise $HOME/.colima on macOS, and the user config directory on other platforms

Editing the config

text
colima start --edit

For manual edit, the config file is located at $HOME/.colima/default/colima.yaml.

For other profiles, $HOME/.colima//colima.yaml

Setting the default config

text
colima template

For manual edit, the template file is located at $HOME/.colima/_templates/default.yaml.

Specifying the config editor

Set the $EDITOR environment variable or use the --editor flag.

sh
colima start --edit --editor code # one-off config
colima template --editor code # default config

How do I change where Colima files are stored?

Colima supports these environment variables, set on your host machine:

Variable Description
COLIMA_HOME Colima configuration directory (default: $HOME/.colima)
COLIMA_CACHE_HOME Colima cache directory (default is host-specific, see os.UserCacheDir())
COLIMA_PROFILE Active profile name (default: default)
DOCKER_CONFIG Path to Docker client configuration directory (default: ~/.docker)

How do I pass custom environment variables into the VM?

Pass environment variables into the VM at startup using the YAML configuration file:

yaml
env:
  MY_VAR: value

You can also use command-line flags:

bash session
# On your host machine...
$ colima start --env MY_VAR=value

# Then, within the VM...
$ colima ssh
user@colima:~$ env | grep MY_VAR
MY_VAR=value

Docker

Can it run alongside Docker for Mac?

Yes, from version v0.3.0 Colima leverages Docker contexts and can thereby run alongside Docker for Mac.

Colima makes itself the default Docker context on startup and should work straight away.

Docker socket location

v0.3.4 or older

Docker socket is located at $HOME/.colima/docker.sock

v0.4.0 or newer

Docker socket is located at $HOME/.colima/default/docker.sock

It can also be retrieved by checking status

text
colima status

Listing Docker contexts

text
docker context list

Changing the active Docker context

text
docker context use <context-name>

Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

Colima uses Docker contexts to allow co-existence with other Docker servers and sets itself as the default Docker context on startup.

However, some applications are not aware of Docker contexts and may lead to the error.

This can be fixed by any of the following approaches. Ensure the Docker socket path by checking the socket location.

  1. Setting application specific Docker socket path if supported by the application. e.g. JetBrains IDEs.

  2. Setting the DOCKER_HOST environment variable to point to Colima socket.

    sh
    export DOCKER_HOST="unix://$HOME/.colima/default/docker.sock"

  3. Linking the Colima socket to the default socket path. Note that this may break other Docker servers.

    sh
    sudo ln -sf $HOME/.colima/default/docker.sock /var/run/docker.sock

How to customize Docker config (e.g., adding insecure registries or registry mirrors)?

  • v0.3.4 or lower

    On first startup, Colima generates Docker daemon.json file at $HOME/.colima/docker/daemon.json.
    Modify the daemon.json file accordingly and restart Colima.

  • v0.4.0 or newer

    Start Colima with --edit flag.

    sh
    colima start --edit

    Add the Docker config to the docker section.

    diff
    - docker: {}
+ docker:
+   insecure-registries:
+     - myregistry.com:5000
+     - host.docker.internal:5000

Note: In order for the Docker client to respect (at least some) configuration value changes, modification of the host ~/.docker/daemon.json file may also be required.

For example, if adding registry mirrors, modifications are needed as follows:

First, colima:

sh
colima start --edit
diff
- docker: {}
+ docker:
+   registry-mirrors:
+     - https://my.dockerhub.mirror.something
+     - https://my.quayio.mirror.something

Registry mirrors can also be set directly on start with the repeatable --registry-mirror flag, without editing the config:

sh
colima start --registry-mirror https://my.dockerhub.mirror.something --registry-mirror https://my.quayio.mirror.something

As an alternative approach to the colima start --edit, make the changes via the template command (affecting the configuration for any new instances):

sh
colima template

Then, the Docker ~/.docker/daemon.json file (as compared to the default):

diff
- "experimental": false,
+ "experimental": false,
+ "registry-mirrors": [
+   "https://my.dockerhub.mirror.something",
+   "https://my.quayio.mirror.something"
+ ]

Docker buildx plugin is missing

buildx can be installed as a Docker plugin

Installing Buildx

Using homebrew

sh
brew install docker-buildx
# Follow the caveats mentioned in the install instructions:
# mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins
# ln -sfn $(which docker-buildx) ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
docker buildx version # verify installation

Alternatively

sh
ARCH=amd64 # change to 'arm64' for m1
VERSION=v0.11.2
curl -LO https://github.com/docker/buildx/releases/download/${VERSION}/buildx-${VERSION}.darwin-${ARCH}
mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins
mv buildx-${VERSION}.darwin-${ARCH} ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
chmod +x ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
docker buildx version # verify installation

Containerd

How to customize Containerd config?

On first startup with the containerd runtime, Colima generates default config files at the standard user config locations:

File Location
Containerd config ~/.config/containerd/config.toml
BuildKit config ~/.config/buildkit/buildkitd.toml

These follow the standard rootless containerd/buildkit config paths and are shared across all Colima profiles.

Modify the files accordingly and restart Colima for changes to take effect.

sh
# edit the containerd config
$EDITOR ~/.config/containerd/config.toml

# restart colima
colima stop && colima start --runtime containerd

Per-profile overrides

To use a different config for a specific profile, place the config file at $HOME/.colima//containerd/config.toml (or buildkitd.toml). Per-profile configs take priority over the central config.

The resolution order is:

  1. ~/.colima//containerd/<file> (per-profile override)
  2. ~/.config/containerd/<file> or ~/.config/buildkit/<file> (central)
  3. Embedded default

Note: $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is respected for the central config location if set.

How does Colima compare to minikube, Kind, K3d?

For Kubernetes

Yes, you can create a Kubernetes cluster with minikube (with Docker driver), Kind or K3d instead of enabling Kubernetes
in Colima.

Those are better options if you need multiple clusters, or do not need Docker and Kubernetes to share the same images and runtime.

Colima with Docker runtime is fully compatible with Minikube (with Docker driver), Kind and K3d.

For Docker

Minikube with Docker runtime can expose the cluster's Docker with minikube docker-env. But there are some caveats.

  • Kubernetes is not optional, even if you only need Docker.

  • All of minikube's free drivers for macOS fall-short in one of performance, port forwarding or volumes. While port-forwarding and volumes are non-issue for Kubernetes, they can be a deal breaker for Docker-only use.

Is another Distro supported?

Version v0.5.6 and lower

Colima uses a lightweight Alpine image with bundled dependencies.
Therefore, user interaction with the Virtual Machine is expected to be minimal (if any).

However, Colima optionally provides Ubuntu container as a layer.

Enabling Ubuntu layer

  • CLI

    text
    colima start --layer=true

  • Config

    diff
    - layer: false
+ layer: true

Accessing the underlying Virtual Machine

When the layer is enabled, the underlying Virtual Machine is abstracted and both the ssh and ssh-config commands routes to the layer.

The underlying Virtual Machine is still accessible by specifying --layer=false to the ssh and ssh-config commands, or by running colima in the SSH session.

Version v0.6.0 and newer

Colima uses Ubuntu as the underlying image. Other distros are not supported.

The Virtual Machine's IP is not reachable

Reachable IP address is not enabled by default due to root privilege and slower startup time.

Enable reachable IP address

NOTE: this is only supported on macOS

  • CLI
    text
    colima start --network-address
  • Config
    diff
    network:
-  address: false
+  address: true

Incus instances are not reachable from the host

Requires v0.10.0

Incus containers and virtual machines are not reachable from the host by default. This is because network address is not enabled by default.

To fix this, stop Colima and restart with network address enabled:

sh
colima stop
colima start --network-address

Or enable it in the config file:

sh
colima start --edit
diff
network:
-  address: false
+  address: true

How can disk space be recovered?

Disk space can be freed in the VM by removing containers or running docker system prune.
However, it will not reflect on the host on Colima versions v0.4.x or lower.

Automatic

For Colima v0.5.0 and above, unused disk space in the VM is released on startup. A restart would suffice.

Manual

For Colima v0.5.0 and above, user can manually recover the disk space by running sudo fstrim -a in the VM.

sh
# '-v' may be added for verbose output
colima ssh -- sudo fstrim -a

How can disk size be increased?

Disk size is automatically increased on start up based on configuration in colima.yaml

diff
- disk: 150
+ disk: 250

Note: This feature is available from Version 0.5.3.

Are Lima overrides supported?

Yes, however this should only be done by advanced users.

Lima supports override.yaml and default.yaml files that can modify the VM configuration.

The override file is located at $HOME/.colima/_lima/_config/override.yaml (or $LIMA_HOME/_config/override.yaml if LIMA_HOME is set).

Settings in override.yaml are applied before the instance config, while settings in default.yaml are applied after (as fallback defaults).

Note: Overriding the image is not supported as Colima's image includes bundled dependencies that would be missing in a user-specified image.

Example: Adding provision scripts

Provision scripts can be added via Lima overrides to run commands during VM boot.

yaml
# $HOME/.colima/_lima/_config/override.yaml
provision:
  - mode: system
    script: |
      #!/bin/bash
      set -eux -o pipefail
      # install additional packages
      apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl

Alternatively, provision scripts can be specified directly in colima.yaml:

sh
colima start --edit
diff
- provision: []
+ provision:
+   - mode: system
+     script: |
+       #!/bin/bash
+       set -eux -o pipefail
+       apt-get update && apt-get install -y curl

How can the VM and its tools be updated?

Updating Colima

sh
brew upgrade colima

After upgrading, delete and recreate the instance to use the latest VM image:

sh
colima delete
colima start

To test the upgrade without affecting the existing setup, use a separate profile:

sh
colima start debug

Updating the container runtime

From v0.7.6, the container runtime (Docker, containerd) can be updated independently:

sh
colima update

This updates Docker (or containerd) to the latest version without needing to update Colima itself.

Accessing the Virtual Machine

SSH into the VM to inspect or modify it directly:

sh
colima ssh

Run a single command without an interactive session:

sh
colima ssh -- uname -a

Troubleshooting

These are some common issues reported by users and how to troubleshoot them.

Colima not starting

There are multiple reasons that could cause Colima to fail to start.

Broken status

This is the case when the output of colima list shows a broken status. This can happen due to macOS restart.

text
colima list
PROFILE    STATUS     ARCH       CPUS    MEMORY    DISK     RUNTIME    ADDRESS
default    Broken     aarch64    2       2GiB      60GiB

This can be fixed by forcefully stopping Colima. The state will be changed to Stopped and it should start up normally afterwards.

text
colima stop --force

FATA[0000] error starting vm: error at 'starting': exit status 1

This indicates that a fatal error is preventing Colima from starting, you can enable the debug log with --verbose flag to get more info.

If the log output includes exiting, status={Running:false Degraded:false Exiting:true Errors:[] SSHLocalPort:0} then it is most certainly due to one of the following.

  1. Running on a device without virtualization support.
  2. Running an x86_64 version of homebrew (and Colima) on an M1 device.

Issues after an upgrade

The recommended way to troubleshoot after an upgrade is to test with a separate profile.

sh
# start with a profile named 'debug'
colima start debug

If the separate profile starts successfully without issues, then the issue would be resolved by resetting the default profile.

text
colima delete
colima start

Colima cannot access the internet.

Failure for Colima to access the internet is usually down to DNS.

Try custom DNS server(s)

sh
colima start --dns 8.8.8.8 --dns 1.1.1.1

Ping an internet address from within the VM to ascertain

text
colima ssh -- ping -c4 google.com
PING google.com (216.58.223.238): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 216.58.223.238: seq=0 ttl=42 time=0.082 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.223.238: seq=1 ttl=42 time=0.557 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.223.238: seq=2 ttl=42 time=0.465 ms
64 bytes from 216.58.223.238: seq=3 ttl=42 time=0.457 ms

--- google.com ping statistics ---
4 packets transmitted, 4 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 0.082/0.390/0.557 ms

Docker Compose and Buildx showing runc error

Version v0.5.6 or lower

Recent versions of Buildkit may show the following error.

console
runc run failed: unable to start container process: error during container init: error mounting "cgroup" to rootfs at "/sys/fs/cgroup": mount cgroup:/sys/fs/cgroup/openrc (via /proc/self/fd/6), flags: 0xf, data: openrc: invalid argument

From v0.5.6, start Colima with --cgroups-v2 flag as a workaround.

This is fixed in v0.6.0.

Issue with Docker bind mount showing empty

When using docker to bind mount a volume (e.g. using -v or --mount) from the host where the volume is not contained within /Users/$USER, the container will start without raising any errors but the mapped mountpoint on the container will be empty.

This is rectified by mounting the volume on the VM, and only then can docker map the volume or any subdirectory. Edit $HOME/.colima/default/colima.yaml and add to the mounts section (examples are provided within the yaml file), and then run colima restart. Start the container again with the desired bind mount and it should show up correctly.

Mount path with spaces is not supported

Mount paths containing spaces (e.g. /Volumes/External HD) are not supported by the
underlying Lima runtime and will fail to mount.

Colima now rejects such paths at startup with a clear error instead of failing silently.
As a workaround, mount a parent directory without spaces, or rename/alias the volume to
avoid spaces. See #1471.

How can Docker version be updated?

Each Colima release includes the latest Docker version at the time of release.

From v0.7.6, there is a new colima update command to update the container runtime without needing to update Colima or to wait for the next Colima release.

How can I delete container data

From v0.9.0, Colima utilises a different disk for the container runtime data. This guards against accidental data loss after deletion and the container data should be reinstated on colima start.

To clear all data, colima delete --data should be run instead. The --data flag ensures that the container data is also deleted.

How do I use Colima with an AI coding assistant?

The skills/ folder is an Agent Skill — Markdown that AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, Kimi Code, etc.) load on demand to give accurate, version-aware Colima guidance instead of generic Docker advice. Install it into your assistant's skills directory, e.g.:

sh
cp -R skills ~/.claude/skills/colima

See skills/README.md for per-tool instructions and what each file covers.

File: docs/INSTALL.md

Installation Options

Homebrew

Stable Version

text
brew install colima

Development Version

text
brew install --HEAD colima

MacPorts

Stable version

text
sudo port install colima

Nix

Only stable Version

text
nix-env -i colima

Or using solely in a nix-shell

text
nix-shell -p colima

Arch

Install dependencies

text
sudo pacman -S qemu-full go docker

Install Lima and Colima from Aur

text
yay -S lima-bin colima-bin

Binary

Binaries are available with every release on the releases page.

sh
# download binary
curl -LO https://github.com/abiosoft/colima/releases/latest/download/colima-$(uname)-$(uname -m)

# install in $PATH
sudo install colima-$(uname)-$(uname -m) /usr/local/bin/colima

Building from Source

Requires Go.

sh
# clone repo and cd into it
git clone https://github.com/abiosoft/colima
cd colima
make
sudo make install

2. Official Technical Reference & Guides (abiosoft/docs)

.NET Docs

This repository contains the conceptual documentation for .NET. The .NET documentation site is built from multiple repositories in addition to this one:

Issues and tasks for all three of those repositories are tracked here. We have a large community using these resources. We make our best effort to respond to issues in a timely fashion. You can read more about our procedures for classifying and resolving issues in our Issues policy topic.

We welcome contributions to help us improve and complete the .NET docs. To contribute, see the Projects for .NET Community Contributors for ideas. The Contributing Guide has instructions on procedures we use. Or, check the issues list for tasks that interest you.

We anticipate that Xamarin, Mono and Unity will also use this documentation.

This project has adopted the code of conduct defined by the Contributor Covenant
to clarify expected behavior in our community.
For more information, see the .NET Foundation Code of Conduct.

Explore Related Technologies & Topics

View All 9,111+ Repositories →

Discover similar high-velocity repositories, agent skills, and OpenAPI specifications across the ecosystem.

#containerd Browse containerd catalog → #containerd-compose Browse containerd-compose catalog → #containers Browse containers catalog → #docker Browse docker catalog → #docker-compose Browse docker-compose catalog → #incus Browse incus catalog → ⚡ MCP Servers Model Context Protocol → 🧠 Agent Skills Prompt & rule files → 🔌 OpenAPI Specs REST & Swagger schemas →