Kuvo Box

Docker for your Mac. None of the weight.

Kuvo Box is a native macOS app that runs the real Docker Engine in a small Linux virtual machine. It's a 3 MB download, it's ready about three seconds after you open it, and it stays quiet when you're not looking at it.

You keep using the docker command, Compose and your existing scripts. Kuvo Box gives them an engine to talk to and a window to see what's running.

Download for macOS · Docs · Report a bug · Build from source

Features

• The real Docker Engine. dockerd from Alpine Linux, not a reimplementation. Compose, builds, volumes and networks work as they do on Linux.
• Ports on localhost. Published ports are forwarded to 127.0.0.1 as soon as a container starts.
• Bind mounts that just work. /Users is shared with the VM at the same path, so -v "$PWD":/app means what you expect.
• Intel images too. linux/amd64 images run through Rosetta.
• A native app. SwiftUI and AppKit, no web view. Compose projects, live resource graphs, colored logs, a terminal in every container, and a menu bar item.
• A CLI for people and agents. kuvo creates containers, runs commands with real exit codes and copies files, so coding agents can work in a container instead of on your Mac.

Getting started

Kuvo Box needs a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 15 or later.

1. Download Kuvo.dmg, open it, and drag Kuvo Box onto the Applications folder.

2. Open it. The first launch downloads Alpine Linux and installs Docker into the VM, which takes a minute or two.

3. When Kuvo Box asks to be used for the docker command, choose Use Kuvo Box. It creates a Docker context called kuvo and makes it the default for every terminal, and it stays that way after a restart. To do it yourself later:

   docker context create kuvo --docker host=unix://$HOME/.kuvo/docker.sock
   docker context use kuvo

4. Run something:

   docker run -d -p 8080:80 nginx:alpine

Warning

Opening Docker Desktop switches the context back to Docker Desktop. Run docker context use kuvo to switch back to Kuvo Box, and docker context use desktop-linux whenever you want Docker Desktop again.

If you don't have the docker command, see Installation. The docs cover Compose, the app, the CLI and troubleshooting.

The kuvo command

The kuvo command ships inside the app and is added to your PATH when Kuvo Box first opens.

$ kuvo new bench --cpus 2 --memory 2g
Created bench from ubuntu:24.04.
$ kuvo cp ~/code/parser bench
Copied 214 files (1.8 MB) to bench:/workspace/parser.
$ kuvo exec -w /workspace/parser bench "make test"

See the CLI reference.

How it works

Kuvo Box boots Alpine Linux with Apple's Virtualization framework and installs the stock Docker packages on first launch. The Docker socket is relayed over vsock to ~/.kuvo/docker.sock, published ports are bridged to localhost, and /Users is shared with virtiofs. The whole app is one Swift binary with three dependencies, and it keeps itself up to date with signed updates. See How it works for details, and Performance for how it compares with Docker Desktop.

Build from source

You need Xcode 16 or later.

git clone https://github.com/serhatandic/kuvo-box.git
cd kuvo-box
./scripts/build-app.sh
open build/Kuvo.app

For development, ./scripts/run.sh builds and runs a debug version. See CONTRIBUTING.md for more.

Contributing and security

Bug reports and focused pull requests are welcome; read CONTRIBUTING.md first. Please report vulnerabilities privately, as described in the security policy.

License

Kuvo Box is source-available under the PolyForm Noncommercial License 1.0.0. You may use, study, modify, and redistribute it for permitted noncommercial purposes. Commercial use, including monetizing a fork or derivative, requires a separate written license from the copyright holder. See NOTICE for the required copyright notice and THIRD_PARTY_LICENSES.txt for the licenses of bundled dependencies.

Contributions are welcome under the terms in CONTRIBUTING.md and the Contributor License Agreement. Those terms let the project owner continue to offer commercial licenses.

Docker is a trademark of Docker, Inc. Kuvo Box is not affiliated with Docker, Inc.