ContainerUtility

ContainerUtility is a native macOS SwiftUI app for working with the Apple container CLI through a focused desktop UI. It is designed as a lightweight utility that can live in the menu bar while giving you a full workspace for runtime health, machines, containers, images, networks, volumes, registry sessions, recent operations, and diagnostics.

ContainerUtility onboarding, workspace, and menu bar flow.

Features

• Native macOS app built with SwiftUI
• Menu bar extra for quick status and fast access back to the main window
• Onboarding flow for first launch and login-item setup
• Runtime health dashboard with Apple container CLI 1.0.0+ compatibility and preflight checks
• Machines workspace for container machine list, inspect, logs, create, configure, set-default, run, stop, and delete workflows
• Container management with inspect, logs, stats, exec, file copy, and filesystem export workflows
• Image workflows for pull, build, builder status/control, tag, push, import, export, and cleanup
• Network and volume management with relationship-aware usage details, network prune, and DNS helpers
• Registry login and logout workflows
• System workspace for runtime health, storage, defaults, kernel guidance, install source, and raw Runtime Details
• Activity center for queued, running, failed, and completed operations
• Diagnostics export for redacted troubleshooting bundles, builder status, system properties, and optional resource inspects

Install

Requirements

• macOS that supports the current release build
• Apple container CLI 1.0.0 or newer in the 1.x line installed and reachable from PATH
• A quick sanity check that container --version and container system version --format json work in Terminal before first launch

Install from release

• Download the latest ContainerUtility.zip from Releases.
• Unzip the archive.
• Move ContainerUtility.app to /Applications.
• Launch the app and complete onboarding.
• If the container CLI is not available in your shell environment yet, fix that first and relaunch the app.

Install from Homebrew

brew tap erdaltoprak/tap && brew trust erdaltoprak/tap
brew install --cask erdaltoprak/tap/containerutility

Homebrew installs the app into /Applications. ContainerUtility still expects the container CLI to already be installed and available on PATH.

Updates

• Release installs use Sparkle for in-app updates.
• Homebrew installs use the same app bundle and are marked as self-updating in the tap.
• Manual update checks are available from the app menu and Settings > About.
• The main window, menu-bar dashboard, and Settings > About show persistent update state when Sparkle has reported one.

Getting started for development

Requirements

• macOS with an Xcode toolchain that supports the project deployment target
• Xcode
• Apple container CLI 1.0.0 or newer in the 1.x line, installed and reachable from your shell

Steps

• Clone the repository.
• Make sure the container CLI is installed and reachable from your shell.

A useful smoke check is container --version && container system version --format json.

• Open ContainerUtility/ContainerUtility.xcodeproj in Xcode.
• Select the ContainerUtility target and run the app.
• Use a Developer ID-signed release build, not an Xcode debug run, if you want to test Sparkle update behavior end to end.

The app is configured as a menu bar utility, so it may launch without a normal Dock presence depending on your current settings and onboarding state.

Project Structure

ContainerUtility/
├── README.md
├── ContainerUtility/
│   ├── ContainerUtility.xcodeproj
│   └── ContainerUtility/
│       ├── App/             # app entrypoint, scenes, settings, onboarding, shared model
│       ├── Domain/          # UI-facing domain and diagnostics models
│       ├── Features/        # containers, images, networks, volumes, activity, diagnostics, home
│       ├── Infrastructure/  # command runner, CLI adapter, refresh controller, diagnostics export
│       └── Shared/          # reusable UI building blocks

License

See License.