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.
• Volumes and networks: create them, browse a volume's files, connect and disconnect containers.
• Disk: see where the space goes and free it 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, 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	Unzip and run Ferrodock.exe. If SmartScreen appears, choose More info → Run anyway.
Linux x64	Ferrodock-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz	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).

The installation guide has the details for each platform.

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	❌	❌	❌

Ferrodock's own engine

When Ferrodock finds no Docker 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. 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 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.