Colima
Overview
Colima provides container runtimes (Docker, Containerd) on macOS with minimal setup. It runs a Linux VM and exposes Docker via contexts.
Use this skill when:
- Docker commands fail ("Cannot connect to Docker daemon")
- Starting/stopping container runtime on macOS
- Managing multiple Docker profiles/contexts
- Troubleshooting container environment issues
- Need SSH agent forwarding for Docker builds
Not for: Docker Compose, Kubernetes clusters, or Linux environments.
Quick Reference
| Operation | Command |
|---|---|
| Start | colima start or colima start <profile> |
| Start with SSH agent | colima start <profile> -s |
| Stop | colima stop or colima stop --force |
| Status | colima status -p <profile> |
| List profiles | colima list |
| SSH into VM | colima ssh or colima ssh -- <cmd> |
| SSH with chained commands | colima ssh -- bash -c "cmd1 && cmd2" |
| Get socket path | colima status -p <profile> --json | jq -r .docker_socket |
Docker Context Basics
Colima creates Docker contexts per profile:
- Profile
default→ contextcolima - Profile
work→ contextcolima-work
# Switch context (global - affects all terminals)
docker context use colima-work
# Override per-session
export DOCKER_CONTEXT=colima-work
# Override per-command
docker --context colima-work ps
For details, see references/docker-contexts.md.
Common Issues
Docker daemon not connecting?
colima status- is it running?docker context list- right context selected?- See
references/troubleshooting.mdfor more
Need more VM resources?
colima stop && colima start --cpu 4 --memory 8
"Broken" status after restart?
colima stop --force && colima start
References
references/ssh-commands.md- SSH command syntax, chaining, escapingreferences/docker-contexts.md- Context switching, DOCKER_HOST, socket pathsreferences/profile-management.md- Creating, configuring, deleting profilesreferences/troubleshooting.md- Common issues and solutionsreferences/common-options.md- Flags, VM types, resource configuration
Upstream Documentation
Local copies of official Colima docs (from github.com/abiosoft/colima):
references/colima-upstream/README.md- Official README with features and usagereferences/colima-upstream/FAQ.md- Official FAQ and troubleshootingreferences/colima-upstream/INSTALL.md- Installation options
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