applecontainercompose/README.md

AppleContainerCompose — Native Xcode project (developer preview)

A SwiftUI macOS application and native Swift accompose CLI that operate Apple's container runtime. No Python, PyYAML, ServBay, Docker Desktop, or Docker daemon is needed. Both targets compile the same ComposeCore.swift orchestration implementation and use the Yams Swift package for YAML parsing.

Requirements

• Apple silicon, macOS 26+, Xcode 26+
• Apple's container CLI installed, with a configured kernel (container system start)
• Internet on first build to fetch the Yams Swift package

Build and run GUI

Open AppleContainerCompose.xcodeproj, select the AppleContainerCompose scheme and run. Use Open YAML to load Examples/compose.yaml, then Up / Down / Status / Logs. The GUI invokes the same native Swift engine as the CLI, not Python.

Install command line utility

From Terminal, in the project root:

./Scripts/install-cli.sh
accompose doctor
cd Examples
accompose up -d
accompose ps
accompose logs
accompose down

The installer builds the accompose Xcode scheme in Release and copies the binary to /opt/homebrew/bin/accompose (override PREFIX=/your/prefix). It asks for administrator permissions only if the destination directory is not writable. Add the prefix's bin directory to your PATH if needed.

CLI usage

accompose init
accompose [-f compose.yaml] [-p project] config
accompose [-v|-vv|-vvv] up [-d|--detach] [--build]
accompose down [--volumes]
accompose ps
accompose pull
accompose build
accompose logs [service]
accompose start|stop|restart [service]
accompose exec SERVICE COMMAND [ARG ...]
accompose doctor

The default file discovery order is compose.yaml, compose.yml, docker-compose.yaml, docker-compose.yml. .env substitution, build contexts, Dockerfiles, service dependency ordering, environment variables, published ports, bind mounts, named volumes, and custom networks have initial support. Names are scoped by project.

Limitations / important safety notes

This is an early developer preview, not a drop-in Docker Compose implementation. Only a subset of Compose YAML is parsed. Long-form mounts/ports, secrets, service health gating, robust reconciliation, profiles, scaling, live logs -f, restart supervision, and full network aliases are not implemented. A service with multiple networks only attaches to its first network; the CLI prints a warning. Restart policies are parsed but not enforced. up does not update an existing container when YAML changes: use down then up. ps currently lists all Apple containers, not just the project. Named volumes are not removed by down unless --volumes is provided. down may stop/remove project containers: check the project name before running it. The installer never automatically downloads or configures an unverified kernel.

Debug and Release builds of both Xcode targets and real Apple container runtime checks passed on macOS. See Validation/VALIDATION.md for the environment, checks and limitations.

Updated developer preview: CLI rename and cleanup

The CLI target and installer are now named accompose. Re-run ./Scripts/install-cli.sh after replacing your old project. The older acccompose executable is not automatically deleted. Verify using accompose --help.

Additional commands:

accompose import ./docker-compose.yml     # validate existing YAML without modifying it
accompose import ~/Projects/example        # validate directory's default Compose file
accompose clean web --dry-run               # preview deletion
accompose clean web                         # delete managed service container
accompose clean --all --dry-run             # preview project container deletion
accompose clean --all                       # delete project containers
accompose prune --images                    # request runtime unused-image cleanup

The sample Examples/site/index.html is included to prevent the original Nginx bind mount failure. Missing directory bind sources are created during up; do not use a missing file bind source because it will be created as a directory.

Compatibility limitations

This is not full Docker Compose support. Import validates only the subset of YAML handled by ComposeCore. Unrecognized service keys cause an explicit error rather than being silently ignored. Import does not yet persist projects to a GUI library, multi-file merging and YAML extension semantics are incomplete, and clean only deletes managed project containers (not host data, volumes, images or networks). Image pruning relies on the installed Apple container version supporting container image prune. The kernel and all host bind files are preserved. --dry-run is only supported for clean and prune. The detached/foreground lifecycle has been integration-tested on the runtime version recorded in Validation/VALIDATION.md.

Foreground and detached mode fix

• accompose up streams each service's logs live and stays attached until log followers finish or the command is interrupted.
• accompose up -d and accompose up --detach return after startup, leaving containers running.
• -v, -vv and -vvv change diagnostics only. They work before or after up, for example accompose -vvv up -d and accompose up -d -vvv.
• Ctrl+C (or SIGTERM) in foreground mode stops managed containers in reverse dependency order using the runtime's graceful stop; containers are preserved for subsequent up. Interrupted startup stops the containers reached so far.
• Existing stopped containers are restarted. Configuration changes still require down and up.
• The GUI's Up action retains its asynchronous, detached engine behavior.
• The runtime executable is resolved from PATH first, with Homebrew/system fallback paths.

Verbosity levels add mode/project details, Compose file location, then startup order. They do not change container execution mode. logs remains a snapshot command; foreground up uses independent live log followers. Multiple service logs share the terminal without added service prefixes.

To rerun the isolated regression suite (Python 3 is needed only for tests):

python3 Tests/cli_regression.py /absolute/path/to/built/accompose

The suite substitutes a temporary fake runtime and never changes real containers.