Ferrodock

The native container manager, written in Rust
One free app for macOS, Windows and Linux, with its own Docker engine built in:
containers, images, volumes, networks and Compose, plus a CLI and an MCP server for AI tools.

Download · Website · Documentation

Ferrodock is a single native app: no Electron, no web view, and no CPU used while idle. It brings its own Docker engine on every platform (a lightweight VM on Macs, a WSL distro on Windows, a service on Linux), so there's nothing else to install, and your images, Compose files and docker commands keep working. Already run Docker? Ferrodock connects to that instead.

Highlights

• Containers with live CPU and memory, one-click start / stop / pause / restart, clickable ports, bulk actions, and grouping by Compose project.
• Logs, stats, terminal and files: colourful, searchable live logs; CPU and memory charts; a real shell inside any container (even ones without a shell); and a file browser with upload and download.
• Compose: start a project from its compose.yaml, rebuild services, and read every service's logs together.
• Images: search Docker Hub as you type, pull with progress, run with a form that shows the docker run command, and tag, push, save or load.
• Quick start: Postgres, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, MinIO, Mailpit or Nginx in one click, with the connection string ready to copy.
• Linux machines: a small Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Alpine, Arch, AlmaLinux, openSUSE or Amazon Linux to work in, with your user, sudo and a folder shared from your computer.
• Kubernetes, only when you want it: a local k3s cluster in under a minute, with worker nodes, kubectl set up and local images loaded in one click. Nothing runs until you create one.
• Local CI: run a project's GitHub Actions workflows on your computer before you push, in the app or with fdock ci run. Jobs run in containers, step by step, with live logs, services, matrices, secrets, artifacts, and actions from GitHub (JavaScript and composite), in a view like GitHub's. The runner comes with what GitHub's does, PowerShell and Docker included.
• Cloud emulator, AWS on your own computer: a local emulator of AWS's APIs for the AWS CLI, the SDKs and Terraform, written in Rust and 3 MB small. One click on the Cloud emulator page or fdock cloud start starts it, with the settings for each tool ready to copy. Its web console, in your browser, shows what each service holds and every request your code sends with what came back. STS, IAM and S3 so far; more services with each version.
• Volumes and networks: create them, browse a volume's files, connect and disconnect containers.
• Disk: what your containers use of the engine's CPUs and memory right now, the busiest first; where the space goes, freed in one step with a preview of exactly what's deleted. Or start over with Reset Docker.
• Command palette (⌘K / Ctrl+K) and keyboard shortcuts for everything.
• Any engine: Ferrodock's own, a local dockerd, local Podman on macOS and Linux, or any Docker context, including remote ones over TLS or SSH. Switch from the sidebar.
• At home on your desktop: light and dark themes, a menu bar / notification area icon, crash notifications, launch at login, and one-click updates.

Install

Easiest: ask your AI assistant (Claude Code, Codex, Copilot, Cursor…) "Install Ferrodock for me, following https://manimovassagh.github.io/Ferrodock/install.md". It follows the install skill: official download, checksum checked, and it asks before anything that needs your password.

macOS (with Homebrew):

brew tap manimovassagh/ferrodock https://github.com/manimovassagh/Ferrodock
brew install --cask ferrodock

Or download a build from the latest release:

Platform	Download	First launch
macOS 11+, Apple Silicon and Intel	Ferrodock-<version>-macos-universal.dmg (or .zip)	Drag Ferrodock.app to Applications. It isn't notarized yet, so allow it once with Open Anyway in System Settings → Privacy & Security (Homebrew does this for you).
Windows 10 / 11, x64	Ferrodock-<version>-windows-x64.zip, or Scoop	Unzip and run Ferrodock.exe. If SmartScreen appears, choose More info → Run anyway.
Linux x64 and arm64	Ferrodock-<version>-linux-amd64.deb (or arm64), the .AppImage, or the .tar.gz	sudo apt install ./Ferrodock-*.deb, or chmod +x Ferrodock-*.AppImage and run it, or tar -xzf Ferrodock-*.tar.gz && ./ferrodock

Each release has a SHA256SUMS.txt to check your download. Ferrodock updates itself: when a new version is out, click Update to x.y.z in the sidebar (or run brew upgrade --cask ferrodock). If a new version won't start, Ferrodock goes back to the one you had.

The installation guide has the details for each platform.

Linux machines

Need a quick Ubuntu to try something in? The Linux machines page makes a small Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Alpine, Arch, AlmaLinux, openSUSE Leap or Amazon Linux in one click, with your user, sudo, git and an editor ready. Share a folder from your computer and the shell starts right in it: files you make there are on your computer too. On Apple Silicon Macs, machines run the native arm64 build of each distribution.

Watch it as a video · Read more

How it compares

	Ferrodock	Docker Desktop	OrbStack	Rancher Desktop	Podman Desktop
macOS, Windows and Linux	✅	✅	macOS only	✅	✅
App built with	Rust, native	Electron	Swift, native	Electron	Electron
Docker engine included	✅	✅	✅	✅	Podman
Open source	✅ MIT	❌	❌	✅ Apache-2.0	✅ Apache-2.0
CLI and MCP server for AI tools, built in	✅	MCP Toolkit	❌	❌	❌
Linux machines to work in	✅	❌	✅	❌	❌
Runs GitHub Actions workflows locally	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌

Ferrodock's own engine

When Ferrodock finds no engine, click Set up Ferrodock's engine. It downloads the engine once, and from then on it starts and stops with Ferrodock.

• Macs (Apple Silicon and Intel): a small Linux VM with the Docker engine, run through Apple's Virtualization framework. Your home folder is shared, so bind mounts just work. On Apple Silicon, Intel-only (linux/amd64) images run too, through Rosetta.
• Windows: a WSL distro called ferrodock. WSL is part of Windows; if it's missing, Ferrodock installs it (with an administrator prompt).
• Linux: the Docker engine itself, as a system service. Setting it up asks for your admin password once; then it starts with your computer.

Already run Docker somewhere? Ferrodock connects to it through DOCKER_HOST or your Docker contexts, and detects local Podman on macOS and Linux. See Ferrodock's own engine and Connecting to other engines.

Command line and AI tools

Ferrodock comes with two more programs, built on the same Rust core:

• fdock, the command line: fdock ps, fdock logs web -f, fdock quickstart postgres, fdock ci run, fdock df and more. Every command takes --json for compact output that scripts and AI tools read cheaply.

• ferrodock-mcp, an MCP server, so AI tools can list containers, read logs, start services and clean up. Tools that change something ask first; --read-only leaves them out.

  claude mcp add ferrodock -- ferrodock-mcp

Ferrodock puts both on your PATH: by itself on Windows and Linux, and with one click under CLI & MCP in the sidebar on macOS (Homebrew does it too). See Command line and AI tools.

Documentation

Everything else lives on the documentation site: getting started, using Ferrodock, updates and releases and troubleshooting. What changed in each version is in CHANGELOG.md.

Build from source

You need Rust 1.95 or newer (on macOS, also run xcode-select --install once; on Windows, let the Rust installer set up the Visual Studio C++ Build Tools).

git clone https://github.com/manimovassagh/Ferrodock.git
cd Ferrodock
cargo run --release

cargo install ferrodock works too. On macOS, packaging/macos/bundle.sh builds a universal Ferrodock.app.

Contributing

Bug reports, ideas and pull requests are welcome: start with an issue, and see CONTRIBUTING.md for the development setup and guidelines. Releases are automated; RELEASING.md explains how. Please report security issues privately, as described in SECURITY.md.

Author

Created and maintained by Mani Movassagh (@manimovassagh).

License

Ferrodock is released under the MIT License. It's free to use for personal, commercial and organisational projects, with no account, subscription or fee. Every dependency is under a permissive open source license, checked in CI. Ferrodock's own engine is built only from free and open source software: see engine/NOTICE.md.