Coding agents and test infrastructure
- Docker for AI coding agents (MCP)
Give Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or Copilot a local MCP server for your containers: 13 tools, read-only by default, crash diagnosis in 159 tokens instead of 2,014.
- Dev Containers and Testcontainers
Run VS Code Dev Containers and Testcontainers on an Apple silicon Mac: the Docker socket, the Docker context, API speed for test suites, and the settings that matter.
Kubernetes and the cloud
- Kubernetes on a Mac: kubectl, k9s, local clusters
How to work with Kubernetes on an Apple silicon Mac: which local cluster tools need what, using kubectl and k9s against local and cloud clusters, and building images for them.
- AWS: ECS, EKS, Fargate and Lambda locally
Run and test AWS container workloads on an Apple silicon Mac: ECS and Fargate task containers with Compose, Lambda container images, LocalStack, and arm64 vs amd64 images.
- Azure: Container Apps and AKS locally
Build and test Azure Container Apps and AKS workloads on an Apple silicon Mac: run the containers with Compose, Azurite for storage, and push to Azure Container Registry.
- Google Cloud Run locally
Test a Cloud Run service on an Apple silicon Mac before you deploy: the PORT contract, building linux/amd64 images, running with Compose, and pushing to Artifact Registry.
Everyday containers on Apple silicon
- Docker on macOS 27
How to run Docker containers on macOS 27 with Apple silicon: your options, installing Oxcart, the docker CLI and Compose, amd64 images through Rosetta, and first commands.
- Docker Compose on Apple silicon
Run Docker Compose stacks on an M-series Mac: arm64 and amd64 images through Rosetta, healthcheck dependencies, up --wait, build caching and ports, with the commands.
- Container networking on a Mac
How container networking works on a Mac and how to fix it: published ports, host.docker.internal, VPN and split DNS, Little Snitch and LuLu, and an encrypted network path.
Choosing a tool
Comparing container apps for the Mac, or choosing tools for a team on macOS, Linux and Windows? The comparisons put the Mac container apps side by side, with benchmark numbers from one Mac and sources for every fact, and tools for Mac, Linux and Windows covers mixed teams.