Why I Settled on Colima with nerdctl and nerdctl-compose for My Docker Workflow

I’m currently in the process of setting up my first personal MacBook, a new M4 Pro, after years of using company-issued Macs off and on. At heart, I’ve always been a Linux enthusiast, and I love the flexibility and control it offers. However, I recently chose to switch to Apple primarily for their incredible hardware and top-notch performance. This transition has reinforced a philosophy I’ve developed over the years: I don’t want to fight with my tools.

This brings me to the world of containers on macOS. As a developer who spends a significant amount of time working with them, having a smooth and efficient local development environment is crucial. For a long time, Docker Desktop was the de-facto standard, but I always found its mandatory GUI to be an unnecessary overhead. This led me on a journey to find a more lightweight, CLI-centric alternative that aligns with my new philosophy. Here’s a recap of my experimentation and why I ultimately landed on a combination of Colima, nerdctl, and nerdctl compose.

The Problem with Docker Desktop

My primary gripe with Docker Desktop has always been its resource-heavy nature and the fact that it forces a GUI on users who are perfectly comfortable in the terminal. I don’t need a graphical interface to manage my containers; I need a fast, reliable, and unobtrusive container runtime. The constant updates, background processes, and the general “bloat” of Docker Desktop pushed me to seek out alternatives.

Attempt 1: Podman

My first stop was Podman. On Linux, Podman is a fantastic daemonless container engine that offers a Docker-compatible CLI. I was excited to try it on macOS. However, the experience wasn’t quite the same. On a Mac, Podman needs to manage a Linux VM to run containers, and it relies on Rosetta for emulation on Apple Silicon. This setup felt a bit clunky and not as native as I had hoped. The need for Rosetta and the underlying VM management made it feel like I was just trading one set of complexities for another.

Attempt 2: Colima with Docker and the buildx rabbit hole

My hunt for the perfect setup intensified when I ran into a specific, frustrating error: fix: docker: unknown command: docker buildxRun 'docker --help' for more information. This happened while I was using Colima with the standard Docker CLI. This setup was a significant improvement over Docker Desktop in terms of being lightweight, but this error stopped me in my tracks.

I had a lightweight VM and could use most familiar Docker commands, but buildx was a no-go. I turned to my usual research assistants, Perplexity and ChatGPT, to figure out what was going on. The consensus from my AI-powered digging was that while you can get buildx working without Docker Desktop, it’s not straightforward. It involves manually installing the buildx plugin and placing it in the ~/.docker/cli-plugins directory. Despite following the instructions, it still didn’t work. After about half an hour of troubleshooting and getting nowhere, I decided to cut my losses. It felt like I was fighting against the tools rather than working with them. The manual configuration and tinkering, which ultimately failed, were exactly the kind of friction I was trying to escape. This was the final push I needed to look for a more integrated solution.

The Winning Combination: Colima with nerdctl and nerdctl compose

This is when I decided to go all-in with the Colima ecosystem. I replaced my setup with Colima, nerdctl, and nerdctl compose. nerdctl is a Docker-compatible CLI for containerd, and it’s designed to work seamlessly with tools like Colima.

This setup gave me everything I was looking for:

• Lightweight: Colima provides a minimal Linux VM, and nerdctl is just a CLI tool. No unnecessary GUI or background services.
• Docker-Compatible: nerdctl and nerdctl compose are compatible with Docker commands and Docker Compose files, so I didn’t have to relearn anything.
• buildx Out of the Box: nerdctl has built-in support for buildx, so multi-platform builds work without any extra configuration.
• Seamless Integration: The tools are designed to work together, making the setup process incredibly simple.

Conclusion

My journey to find the perfect container setup on macOS ended with Colima, nerdctl, and nerdctl compose. This combination provides a powerful, lightweight, and CLI-focused workflow that gets out of my way and lets me focus on what’s important: building applications.

It’s worth noting that this setup isn’t without its trade-offs. Since Colima uses a VM to run x86_64 containers on my ARM64 machine, there’s a performance hit compared to running native containers. However, for me, the trade-off is well worth it. The setup is hassle-free, and as I’ve learned, I don’t want to fight with my tools. That peace of mind and ease of use are more valuable to my daily workflow than raw performance.

If you’re a developer on macOS who prefers the command line and wants to move away from Docker Desktop, I highly recommend giving this setup a try.