A fast, lightweight alternative to Docker Desktop for running and managing containers on your machine, without the overhead of a full desktop stack.

Quick start

make help          # list commands
make dev-backend   # terminal 1: API on 127.0.0.1:8765
make dev-ui        # terminal 2: macOS app

See DEVELOPMENT.md for configuration and migration from Docker Desktop.

Performance

Public macOS benchmarks comparing calf with Docker Desktop and OrbStack (VM boot, Compose startup, bind-mount I/O, idle RAM) are in BENCHMARKS.md. Reproduce them with make benchmarks.

Installation

macOS

On macOS, calf runs containers in its own VM. Install the Docker CLI and its plugins on the host (calf does not ship them):

brew install docker docker-compose docker-buildx
brew install --cask enegalan/calf/calf

Then open calf and leave Use calf for Docker CLI enabled in Settings so docker / docker compose talk to calf.

Leaving Docker Desktop: trashing Docker Desktop often leaves broken symlinks under ~/.docker/cli-plugins/ (for docker-buildx and docker-compose). calf detects that on startup and relinks working plugins from Homebrew, OrbStack, or PATH when it can. If Settings still shows a plugins warning, run the brew install line above.

The .dmg and .pkg installers are unsigned during the development phase.

Windows

Download the .exe installer from the Releases page and run it. The installer will guide you through the setup process and register the application.

Linux

Download the package for your distribution from the Releases page. We provide three distribution formats for Linux:

• Debian/Ubuntu (.deb):

  sudo dpkg -i calf-<version>-amd64.deb

• RedHat/Fedora (.rpm):

  sudo rpm -i calf-<version>-amd64.rpm

• AppImage: Make the file executable and run it:

  chmod +x calf-<version>-x86_64.AppImage
  ./calf-<version>-x86_64.AppImage

License

MIT — see LICENSE.