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Support for Intel and Apple Silicon macOS, and Linux

• Simple CLI interface with sensible defaults
• Automatic Port Forwarding
• Volume mounts
• Multiple instances
• Support for multiple container runtimes
  • Docker (with optional Kubernetes)
  • Containerd (with optional Kubernetes)
  • Incus (containers and virtual machines)

Colima is available on Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix andmise. Checkhere for other installation options.

# Homebrewbrew install colima# MacPortssudo port install colima# Nixnix-env -iA nixpkgs.colima# Misemise use -g colima@latest

Or stay on the bleeding edge (only Homebrew)

brew install --HEAD colima

If upgrading from v0.5.6 or lower, it is required to start afresh by deleting existing instance.

colima delete# delete existing instancecolima start

Start Colima with defaults

colima start

For more usage options

colima --helpcolima start --help

Or use a config file

colima start --edit

When you run thecolima template command, Colima opens the default configuration in a temporary file using your editor (VS Code by default, if installed).

For example, you might see something like:

/var/folders/hm/xmq4vxs13dl2hx2jyct65r080000gn/T/colima-2758922589.yaml

You can edit this temporary file as needed. Once you save and close the file in the editor, Colima automatically overwrites the default template config located at:

~/.colima/_templates/default.yaml

To see more options for working with templates, run:

colima template --help

On initial startup, Colima initiates with a user specified runtime that defaults to Docker.

Docker client is required for Docker runtime. Installable with brewbrew install docker.

You can use thedocker client on macOS aftercolima start with no additional setup.

colima start --runtime containerd starts and setup Containerd. You can usecolima nerdctl to interact withContainerd usingnerdctl.

It is recommended to runcolima nerdctl install to installnerdctl alias script in $PATH.

kubectl is required for Kubernetes. Installable withbrew install kubectl.

To enable Kubernetes, start Colima with--kubernetes flag.

colima start --kubernetes

For Docker runtime, images built or pulled with Docker are accessible to Kubernetes.

For Containerd runtime, images built or pulled in thek8s.io namespace are accessible to Kubernetes.

Requires v0.7.0

Incus client is required for Incus runtime. Installable with brewbrew install incus.

colima start --runtime incus starts and setup Incus.

You can use theincus client on macOS aftercolima start with no additional setup.

Note: Running virtual machines on Incus is only supported on m3 or newer Apple Silicon devices.

Requires v0.7.0

Colima can also be utilised solely as a headless virtual machine manager by specifyingnone runtime.

The default VM created by Colima has 2 CPUs, 2GiB memory and 100GiB storage.

The VM can be customized either by passing additional flags tocolima start.e.g.--cpu,--memory,--disk,--runtime.Or by editing the config file withcolima start --edit.

NOTE:disk size cannot be changed after the VM is created. From v0.5.3, disk size can be increased.

• create VM with 1CPU, 2GiB memory and 10GiB storage.

  colima start --cpu 1 --memory 2 --disk 10

• modify an existing VM to 4CPUs and 8GiB memory.

  colima stopcolima start --cpu 4 --memory 8

• create VM with Rosetta 2 emulation. Requires v0.5.3 and macOS >= 13 (Ventura) on Apple Silicon.

  colima start --vm-type=vz --vz-rosetta

To provide container runtimes on macOS with minimal setup.

Colima means Containers onLima.

Since Lima is aka Linux Machines. By transitivity, Colima can also mean Containers on Linux Machines.

The logo was contributed byDaniel Hodvogner. Checkthis issue for more.

Checkhere for Frequently Asked Questions.

Checkhere for the instructions on contributing to the project.

• GitHub Discussions
• GitHub Issues
• #colima channel in the CNCF Slack
  • New account:https://slack.cncf.io/
  • Login:https://cloud-native.slack.com/

• Documentation and project website

MIT

If you (or your company) are benefiting from the project and would like to support the contributors, kindly sponsor.

• Github Sponsors
• Buy me a coffee
• Patreon