container

A tool for creating and running Linux containers using lightweight virtual machines on a Mac. It is written in Swift, and optimized for Apple silicon. observed · 2026-10-07

github.com/apple/container · homepage · Swift · Apache-2.0 (permissive) observed · 2026-10-07

Health v2 · maintenance only

85/100

Activity 98
Release rhythm 97
Longevity 36

How is this computed?

round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-10-21. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.

gap_med: 22
age_days: 508
days_rel: 22
days_push: 14
n_releases_24m: 24

Full methodology

Adoption not part of the score

50528 stars · 1805 forks observed · 2026-10-07

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-09-21, confidence 0.97

container is a command‑line tool written in Swift that lets you create and run Linux containers as lightweight virtual machines on Apple silicon Macs. It works with OCI‑compatible images, enabling you to pull, build, and push containers from any standard registry.

Use cases

run Linux containers directly on a Mac with Apple silicon
build and publish OCI‑compatible container images from macOS
test containerized applications without installing Docker
use lightweight VMs for isolated development environments on macOS
pull and execute images from public registries on a Mac
create custom container images for Apple‑silicon development workflows

When to choose

You need a native macOS solution for container execution on Apple silicon.
You prefer a Swift‑based tool that integrates tightly with macOS virtualization features.
You want OCI‑compatible image support without installing Docker or a full VM stack.

When to avoid

You need to run containers on Windows, Linux, or older macOS versions.
Your workflow requires Docker‑specific APIs or Docker Compose compatibility.
You require support for non‑Apple silicon hardware or cloud‑hosted container runtimes.

Facets

cli-tool · maturity active

container-runtime cli cloud-computing cli swift apple-silicon oci-compatible lightweight-vm containers devops macos

3 sources

readme: https://github.com/apple/container · fetched 2026-10-07 · 2ad9e3d0e00a
homepage: https://apple.github.io/containerization/documentation/ · fetched 2026-08-28 · c9d659cb806f
homepage: https://apple.github.io/container/documentation/ · fetched 2026-09-07 · c9d659cb806f

Member repositories

Repository	Role	Health v2
apple/container	main	85
apple/containerization	sdk	72
apple/container-builder-shim	plugin	60

For agents

markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="apple/container")

Data as of 2026-10-19T08:05:51.212177+00:00 · Report a problem