Irekobox is a free, open-source Mac app for Apple’s container. Run containers, Compose projects, Linux machines and Kubernetes clusters, each in its own lightweight virtual machine.
For Macs with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later.
Apple’s container runs each container in a virtual machine of its own, isolated and quick to start. It comes as a command-line tool. Irekobox gives it a window.
Logs that keep up with a hundred thousand lines, a terminal, the container’s files with Quick Look, and live charts of CPU, memory and network.
Change a port or a variable and Irekobox recreates the container for you. The old one stays until the new one is running.
Open a folder with a compose.yaml. Irekobox draws the services, their ports and what waits for what, and before the first start tells you what works as is, what it fixes for you and what container can’t do yet.
Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora or Alpine with your account and your files, a click away. Open a terminal and work as if Linux were installed on the Mac.
Create a local cluster, add it to your kubeconfig, load the images you built and run an app without writing YAML.
Irekobox answers the Docker API on a socket of its own. Switch the context and the docker command, Compose, Testcontainers and Dev Containers run on Apple’s container, with no Docker Desktop behind them.
Moving over? Irekobox brings your images, volumes, registry logins and Compose projects from Docker Desktop.
$ docker context use irekobox $ docker compose up -d ✔ Container shop-db-1 Healthy ✔ Container shop-web-1 Started $ docker run -it --rm alpine sh
A background agent restarts containers by their restart policy and brings them back when you log in.
Engine status, CPU and memory, running apps with links to their ports.
A notification when a container stops unexpectedly, turns unhealthy or has a newer image.
Press ⌘K to jump to any container, image or project, or to run an action.
A built-in MCP server lets coding assistants read logs and manage containers, asking before anything is deleted.
Irekobox installs and updates Apple’s container for you and starts the engine.
Yes. Irekobox is free and open source under the Apache License 2.0, for personal and company use.
No. Irekobox runs containers with Apple’s container, an open-source tool from Apple. Docker Desktop doesn’t need to be installed.
Yes. Turn on the Docker API in Irekobox and run docker context use irekobox. The docker command-line tool, Docker Compose, Testcontainers and Dev Containers then run on Apple’s container. The docker command itself is installed separately, for example with Homebrew.
Macs with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later. Apple’s container doesn’t run on Intel Macs.
Docker Desktop runs every container in one shared Linux virtual machine. Apple’s container gives each container a lightweight virtual machine of its own, so containers are isolated from each other. Irekobox is a native Mac app built on it.
Yes. Irekobox brings over your images, volumes, registry logins and Compose projects, and tells you what can’t move.
No. There are no analytics and no account. It goes online only to check for updates, to search Docker Hub when you search for an image, and to talk to the registries you use.
Ireko-bako are Japanese nesting boxes: each holds a smaller one.
Irekobox puts your app in a container, the container in a small Linux VM, and the VM in your Mac.
Free and open source under the Apache License 2.0. Signed and notarized by Apple; it updates itself.
container 1.6 or later. Irekobox installs it if it’s missing.Irekobox is free and stays free. If it saves you time, a donation pays for the hours that go into it.