Davit

A native macOS UI for Apple's container platform — think OrbStack/Docker Desktop, but for the Linux-containers-as-lightweight-VMs stack Apple ships for Apple silicon.

A davit is the shipboard crane that hoists cargo and small craft over the side — which is more or less what this app does with your containers.

Built entirely in SwiftUI (no Electron, no web views). Davit links Apple's own ContainerAPIClient library and talks to container-apiserver directly over XPC — the same wire path the container CLI uses. The CLI binary is never invoked: lists, lifecycle, live stats, log streaming, image pulls, volume/network management, the in-terminal shell (davit exec), and even launchd service bootstrap all go through the API.

Features

• Dashboard — service status with one-click start/stop, resource counts, disk usage with reclaimable-space cleanup menu, live aggregate CPU chart across running containers.
• Containers — list with live CPU/memory/IP per row, start/stop/kill/restart/delete, prune, search, Export Filesystem (save a container's rootfs as a tar), and Edit & Recreate (containers are immutable on this platform, so "editing" opens the Run sheet prefilled with the container's ports/env/mounts/resources/network — with the image's entrypoint/CMD/env subtracted so only your customizations show — and replaces it on confirm). Detail view with:
  • Overview: image, command, platform, resources, network (IP/MAC/gateway/hostname), published ports with "Open in Browser", mounts, environment, labels.
  • Logs: streaming -f follow mode, boot-log toggle, tail selector, copy.
  • Stats: live CPU %, memory, and disk-I/O charts (Swift Charts); tiles for CPU, memory, disk space used, network, and process count.
  • Inspect: pretty-printed raw JSON.
  • Terminal: opens an interactive shell in Terminal/iTerm (davit exec over XPC).
  • Files: browse the container filesystem — navigate, download, upload, delete (over exec + copy in/out).
• Images — pull with streaming progress, Pull Latest to refresh any image's tag to the newest digest (context menu or image detail), run-from-image, tag, delete, prune; per-image platform variants, size, digest, "used by" containers, and a Layers tab (per-layer size + the command that built it).
• Volumes — create (with size), delete, prune, reveal backing image in Finder, in-use badges, and Browse Files (mounts the volume into a throwaway helper and reuses the file browser).
• Networks — create (subnet / internal), delete, prune, attached-container counts.
• Local DNS — Settings → Platform → Registry & DNS creates host DNS domains (container system dns, one admin prompt): set one as default and containers resolve at name.<domain> from your Mac; each container's overview shows its name.<domain>.
• Global search — ⌘K opens a palette to jump to any container, image, volume, network or machine.
• Deep links — davit://container/<id> opens Davit and reveals that container's detail (Overview). Handy for linking to a container from another app or a script (open davit://container/my-app).
• Stop notifications — opt-in (Settings → General): a macOS notification when a container stops unexpectedly (crashes/external stops), while stops you trigger stay quiet.
• Machines — Apple's container machines (lightweight general-purpose VMs with your home directory mounted and a stable .machine DNS name): create from any image with CPU/memory sizing, boot/stop, set the default, delete; detail view with configuration overview, streamed logs, live stats and inspect JSON; one-click Terminal into the machine's login shell; edit CPUs/memory/home-mount (applies on next boot). Davit machine list|create|boot|stop|delete|exec|set headless.
• Run Container sheet — image picker, name, command, ports, env vars, volume/bind mounts, CPU/memory limits, network selection. type to search Docker Hub, or enter any reference; amd64-only images are detected automatically: with Rosetta installed Davit adds --arch amd64 for you (with a performance note); without it, the run is blocked with the exact install command to copy. Davit run [flags] IMAGE [COMMAND…] headless (docker-style single-container run — see Binary modes) with -d/--rm/--pull missing|always|never and the same docker-ish flag vocabulary as compose.
• Build images — Images → Build Image: pick a context folder and Dockerfile, pick any Dockerfile (non-default names too), choose the target platform (linux/arm64 or linux/amd64), set tag/build-args, and Davit drives the platform's BuildKit builder (starting it if needed), then loads and tags the result into the image store. Davit build -t <tag> <context-dir> headless.
• Compose import — Containers → ⋯ → Import Compose File: parses a compose file, previews exactly what will be created (services in depends_on order, named volumes, networks, the equivalent container run command per service, and warnings for anything unsupported), then creates and starts the stack — honoring healthchecks, profiles, depends_on conditions (service_healthy, service_completed_successfully), env_file:/entrypoint:, and ${VAR} interpolation from the file's sibling .env merged under the process environment. .env and env_file: values are themselves interpolated at load time (docker parity): a double-quoted or bare value like VAR="${HOME}/x" expands against the process environment and earlier entries in the same/prior files, while a single-quoted value (VAR='${HOME}/x') stays literal; inline comments ( # …) are stripped docker-style, and known deviations from compose-go (backslash escapes like \$ are not processed — use $$; a nested default ${A:-${B}} keeps the default literal) are deliberate. Headless: the full lifecycle — Davit compose plan | up [-d] [--down-on-failure] | down [-v] | ps | logs [-f\|--follow] [--tail <n>] | stop | start | restart | pull | exec <service> <command…>, each taking [-f <file>] [--env-file <path>] [--profile <p>]… [--verbose\|-q\|--quiet] [service…] — autodiscovers the file like docker (compose.yaml, compose.yml, docker-compose.yml, docker-compose.yaml, walking up parent directories; COMPOSE_FILE wins). --down-on-failure (up only) tears the containers this invocation itself created back down if the up fails partway, without disturbing already-running services it reused; --verbose/-q/--quiet control per-command diagnostics (mutually exclusive). Naming services scopes the command: plan/up add the dependency closure, while stop/start/restart/pull/ps and down apply to exactly the named services (docker behavior). Service discovery: the platform's DNS cannot resolve compose service names, so up/start/restart write managed /etc/hosts entries (suffixed # davit-compose) into every running container of the project, mapping each service and container name to its current IP — refreshed on every run, so a recreated service's new IP reaches the containers that kept running. Caveat: containers recreated outside compose keep stale entries until the next up or start; images without /bin/sh can't be patched (warning). Resource limits: a service without mem_limit/cpus (or deploy.resources.limits) gets the platform's default container memory/CPUs — configurable in Settings → Platform; since each service is its own lightweight VM, that default is reserved per container, not shared across the stack. Logging: the app (and davit compose) log to stderr at a level set by the DAVIT_LOG_LEVEL env var (trace|debug|info|notice|warning|error|critical, default info); compose --verbose additionally bumps the process to debug unless DAVIT_LOG_LEVEL was explicitly (and validly) set.
• Registries — sign in to Docker Hub / ghcr.io / any registry to pull private images (Settings → Registries); credentials are verified against the registry and stored in the login keychain, shared with the container CLI. Docker credential helpers are honored too: if ~/.docker/config.json has a credHelpers/credsStore entry for a registry (Google Artifact Registry via gcloud, ECR, etc.), Davit invokes the helper right before each pull and stages the short-lived token for the platform, so hourly-expiring credentials always work.
• Menu bar extra — service status, per-container quick actions from anywhere.
• Auto-start containers — mark any container "Start when Davit Opens" (context menu); on launch Davit brings the platform services up if needed and starts them. Combined with Open at login, your containers are running when you sit down.
• Open at login — optional launch-to-menu-bar at login (Settings → General), via SMAppService.
• In-app updates — Sparkle, checking daily or on demand from About. Updates carry an EdDSA signature over the archive, which is a trust root independent of the Developer ID certificate, so controlling the feed alone is not enough to ship code. Shared with Don't Miss: one mechanism, one signing key.
• Settings — platform install-root override and refresh interval (General), plus a full platform configuration editor (Platform tab): default container CPUs/memory, registry, local DNS domain, builder resources/Rosetta, and advanced knobs (kernel, init image, machine). Only values differing from install defaults are written to ~/.config/container/config.toml, [plugin.*] sections are preserved, every save is validated through the platform's own config loader before commit, and the result is published to the app root immediately — container defaults/registry/DNS apply to new operations right away, daemon-side settings after a service restart (button provided).

Requirements

• Apple silicon Mac, macOS 15+ (macOS 26 recommended — matches container 1.1)
• apple/container installed (or vendored, see below)

Releases

Tagging v* triggers a GitHub Actions workflow that builds the app on a macOS runner and attaches Davit-<version>.dmg and Davit-<version>.zip (+ sha256s) to a GitHub Release. The DMG is the drag-to-Applications install; the zip feeds the in-app updater and Homebrew.

With these repository secrets set, releases are Developer ID signed (hardened runtime) and notarized, so they open like any other app:

Without the secrets, builds fall back to ad-hoc signing and the release notes include the xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine workaround.

Install

brew install wouterdebie/tap/davit

(Homebrew 6 asks you to trust third-party taps on first use: brew trust wouterdebie/tap.) Or download the signed DMG from Releases / davit.app and drag Davit to Applications.

Getting started

From a fresh install to something running in your browser:

1. Open Davit. On first launch, if Apple's container platform isn't installed, Davit downloads and installs it for you — no admin password needed.
2. Pull a demo image — Images → Pull Image → nginxdemos/hello (small, and it serves a visible page).
3. Run it with a port — Run the image, map host 8088 → container 80.
4. Open it — the container's Ports row has Open in Browser, or visit localhost:8088. You'll see a page served from inside the container, showing its own hostname and IP.
5. Explore — live CPU/memory/disk, streaming logs, a one-click terminal, and Edit & Recreate to change ports/env/resources.

Build & run

scripts/bundle.sh        # builds release binary + assembles dist/Davit.app
open dist/Davit.app

Plain swift build / swift run also works for development (no bundle, so no icon/menu-bar niceties).

What must still be installed

The API removes the CLI dependency, not the platform dependency: container-apiserver and its runtime/network plugin binaries are host launchd services that the library only talks to. Davit resolves the platform install root in this order:

1. custom install root from Settings
2. a Davit-managed install at ~/Library/Application Support/dev.wouter.davit/platform/<version>
3. /usr/local (the official installer)
4. Homebrew kegs (/opt/homebrew/opt/container, /usr/local/opt/container)
5. vendored inside the app at Davit.app/Contents/Resources/vendor

Order alone isn't enough: each candidate's container-apiserver --version is probed (and cached), an exact match for the client the app links wins outright, and installs whose major version differs are skipped — they can't be driven over XPC at all. When every install on disk is incompatible, onboarding says so by name and offers the in-app install rather than starting a daemon the app can't talk to. Davit platform status prints the same view from a terminal.

In-app install: when no platform is found, the onboarding screen offers one-click install — Davit downloads Apple's signed installer pkg (with a live progress bar), verifies the code signature, extracts the payload into the managed root (no administrator rights needed, unlike the official installer), and bootstraps the services from there. Settings → General can then also install a container shell command: a wrapper in /usr/local/bin that pins CONTAINER_INSTALL_ROOT to the managed root before exec'ing the real CLI (one admin prompt; a bare symlink would be wrong, since the CLI derives its install root from the unresolved executable path). The managed copy sits above /usr/local in the resolution order on purpose: it always matches the client version the app links, so a newer system daemon can't break XPC compatibility. Also available headless: Davit platform install|remove|status.

To ship a fully self-contained app that works without the system installer:

scripts/vendor.sh 1.0.0        # downloads the official signed .pkg, extracts payload into Vendor/container
scripts/bundle.sh --vendor     # bundles it into the app

Service start/stop is implemented in-process (LaunchPlist + ServiceManager from ContainerPlugin — the same code container system start runs), pointed at whichever install root was resolved. Kernel and init-image installation are handled non-interactively on first start. App data lives in the standard ~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.container/, so Davit and the CLI (if installed) always see the same containers.

Version pinning: the SPM dependency on apple/container is pinned exact: (see Package.swift) to match the daemon; client and apiserver ship in lockstep and the XPC protocol is not a stable public API. When the installed platform updates, bump the pin and rebuild.

Trade-offs of vendoring, for the record: the bundle grows by ~150 MB, you own the update cadence of the toolchain, and the launchd services are registered from inside the app bundle (so moving/deleting the app orphans them until container system stop). The default remains "use the system install" because the official pkg keeps services under /usr/local and updates independently.

Binary modes

The app binary doubles as a small tool:

Davit exec <container-id> [command…]   # interactive TTY shell — or a one-off command — in a container (used by "Open Terminal")
Davit selftest                   # end-to-end test of the XPC service layer against the live daemon
Davit system start|stop          # bootstrap / tear down the container launchd services
Davit platform install|remove    # download + verify Apple's signed pkg into an app-managed install root
Davit platform status            # list the platform installs found, their versions, and which one Davit drives
Davit registry login|list|logout # registry credentials (login reads the password from stdin)
Davit run [flags] IMAGE [COMMAND…]    # docker-style single-container run
    # flags precede IMAGE (docker convention; -- also ends flag parsing, --help prints usage and
    # exits 0): -d|--detach, --rm, --pull missing|always|never, -e/--env, --env-file, -t/--tty,
    # -u/--user, --uid, --gid, -w/--workdir, --ulimit, -c/--cpus, -m/--memory, --name, -p/--publish,
    # -v/--volume, --mount, --tmpfs, --network, --entrypoint, -l/--label, --platform, --arch, --os,
    # --cap-add, --cap-drop, --init, --read-only, --shm-size, --dns, --dns-search, --dns-option,
    # --no-dns, --rosetta, --virtualization, --ssh (forwards SSH_AUTH_SOCK from the host env),
    # --cidfile (written once the container is up; refuses to overwrite an existing file, docker
    # parity), --verbose|-q|--quiet. Clustered short flags (`-it`, `-dit`, …) are expanded the way
    # docker itself accepts them. Without -d, attaches to the new container's logs (no prefix,
    # status lines on stderr so stdout stays pure container output) until Ctrl-C, which detaches
    # only — the container keeps running (signals can't be forwarded to the guest process on this
    # platform, unlike docker) — and exits with the container's own exit code once it stops
    # (docker parity); with --rm, removal happens right after the attach ends rather than racing a
    # fast one-shot's daemon-side auto-remove, so output is never lost. -i/--interactive and docker
    # flags with no platform mapping (--restart, --privileged, --add-host, --hostname, --gpus, …)
    # are rejected outright rather than silently ignored.
Davit compose <subcommand> [-f <file>] [--env-file <path>] [--profile <p>]… [service…]
    # subcommands: plan | up [-d|--detach] | down [-v|--volumes] | ps | logs [-f|--follow] [--tail <n>]
    #              stop | start | restart | pull | exec <service> <command…>
    # file autodiscovered like docker; .env + ${VAR} interpolation; naming services scopes the
    # command (plan/up add the dependency closure; stop/start/restart/pull/ps/down take exactly
    # the named services). In-container service names resolve via managed /etc/hosts entries,
    # re-synced on every up/start/restart — recreates outside compose need another up/start.
Davit build -t <tag> <dir>       # build an image from <dir>/Dockerfile via the BuildKit shim
Davit machine list|create|boot|stop|delete   # container machines (micro VMs)
Davit --snapshot /tmp/shots      # render every screen to PNGs via ImageRenderer (no screen-recording permission)

Architecture

Sources/ContainerStack/
  Main.swift            entry point + exec/selftest/system binary modes
  Backend.swift         XPC service layer on ContainerAPIClient: ContainerService facade,
                        SystemController (launchd bootstrap), LogStreamer (FileHandle tail/follow),
                        PullProgressModel, TerminalLauncher, platform install resolution
  Models.swift          view models mapped from ContainerResource types (views stay decoupled
                        from the unstable library API)
  AppState.swift        @MainActor store: polling (4s data / 2s stats), CPU% derivation, actions
  SnapshotDriver.swift  --snapshot harness
  App.swift             SwiftUI scenes, menu bar extra
  Views/                Shell (sidebar), Dashboard, Containers, ContainerDetail, Images,
                        VolumesNetworks, Sheets (run/pull/create), Settings, Components

Stats note: the daemon reports cumulative cpuUsageUsec; Davit derives CPU% from deltas between polls, normalized to wall-clock time (100% = one full core).

Website

davit.app is a static page in site/, with no build step or remote fonts. Open site/index.html locally to preview it. The layout shares Don't Miss's visual style, follows the system appearance, and offers a light/dark toggle for the current page. Downloads and Homebrew work without JavaScript; GitHub statistics are optional. The screenshot showcase has five manually selected tabs, Left/Right and Home/End keyboard navigation, and touch swiping. Images fit a fixed-ratio frame without cropping; without JavaScript, all five screenshots remain visible in a stack.

Deploy with your authorized personal GCP account:

GCLOUD_ACCOUNT=prutser@gmail.com GCLOUD_PROJECT=wouterdebie-personal \
  bash site/deploy.sh davit-app

The script uploads images and CSS before HTML, sets HTML/CSS to revalidate, and never deletes bucket objects or touches the release-managed legacy appcast.json. No app release or load-balancer changes are needed.