Kiri Container Runtime
Lightweight Cross-platform Container Runtime
Description
Docker Desktop grabs gigabytes of RAM the moment it opens, spins the fans and still starts containers slowly, when all you wanted was to run a few images locally. Kiri is a lightweight container runtime in Rust: containers run in one small Linux VM (or straight on the kernel on Linux) and it speaks the Docker Engine API, so the docker, Compose and buildx commands you already use just work.
The numbers are blunt: starting and exiting a container through the Docker API takes about 2.5 ms, against the author's measurements of 213 ms for Docker Desktop and 380 ms for OrbStack; the daemon stays around 15 MB, the VM sleeps after 60 s idle and wakes in about 0.15 s. It supports macOS 14+, Windows 10 and 11 (through WSL 2) and the main Linux distributions, under the Apache-2.0 licence.
Docker compatible: docker, Compose, buildx and docker login work as is, amd64 images run through Rosetta on Apple silicon, and Docker's commands also work as kiri run, kiri ps and so on.
Local domains: Every container gets http://.kiri.local, with HTTPS from Kiri's own certificate authority.
Native window: Containers grouped by Compose project with state, ports, local domains and size, plus images, volumes, networks and a menu bar item.
Kubernetes and Linux machines: kiri k8s start brings up a single-node cluster; kiri machine create makes an Ubuntu or other Linux machine and drops you into its shell.
One-command import: kiri import moves images, volumes and containers over from OrbStack or Docker Desktop.
Self-updating: Sets up a kiri Docker context on first launch, then updates itself after checking each release's signature.
The numbers are blunt: starting and exiting a container through the Docker API takes about 2.5 ms, against the author's measurements of 213 ms for Docker Desktop and 380 ms for OrbStack; the daemon stays around 15 MB, the VM sleeps after 60 s idle and wakes in about 0.15 s. It supports macOS 14+, Windows 10 and 11 (through WSL 2) and the main Linux distributions, under the Apache-2.0 licence.
Features
Docker compatible: docker, Compose, buildx and docker login work as is, amd64 images run through Rosetta on Apple silicon, and Docker's commands also work as kiri run, kiri ps and so on.
Local domains: Every container gets http://
Native window: Containers grouped by Compose project with state, ports, local domains and size, plus images, volumes, networks and a menu bar item.
Kubernetes and Linux machines: kiri k8s start brings up a single-node cluster; kiri machine create makes an Ubuntu or other Linux machine and drops you into its shell.
One-command import: kiri import moves images, volumes and containers over from OrbStack or Docker Desktop.
Self-updating: Sets up a kiri Docker context on first launch, then updates itself after checking each release's signature.
