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Docker on a Mac

A Docker control panel on your desktop — start/stop, logs, exec, prune and Compose up/down, on Docker, OrbStack or Apple’s runtime, without the CLI.

If your day is containers, FrontierStack is a Docker control panel on your Mac — manage everything from one window, with no CLI gymnastics and no Docker Desktop dashboard required.

Manage containers without the CLI

Start, stop, restart, remove and prune containers, tail logs, exec into a shell, and inspect ports and environment variables at a glance. Bring a Docker Compose project up or down with one click, and restart or quit the engine itself when it gets stuck.

Docker, OrbStack or Apple’s runtime

Use whichever runtime you prefer — Docker, OrbStack or Apple’s container runtime. FrontierStack auto-discovers the services running inside your containers (matching images and ports to known software), so you can open a running app in a click.

Local and remote, side by side

Drive containers on this Mac, or point the same actions at a cloud server over SSH — your laptop and your EC2 box managed the same way. Pop the Containers view out as an always-on-top floating palette to keep it beside your editor.

Voice, Shortcuts and AI

List or restart a container from Apple Shortcuts and Siri, or ask the AI Administrator in plain English — “why does this container keep restarting?” — and it reads the logs and proposes a fix you approve.

Services we install or monitor for this

85 services across 4 categories that FrontierStack can install, connect and monitor for this use-case — revealed together when you pick this preset in the app.

Containers (40)

  • Apple Container — Apple's native `container` tool — Linux containers in per-container VMs
  • Azure Local — Azure Stack HCI successor — monitored via Azure ARM, no local API
  • Colima — Container runtimes on macOS via Lima (Docker/containerd/k8s)
  • Dev Containers (VS Code) — Reproducible dev environments in a container
  • Docker Swarm — Docker-native clustering (docker swarm / stack)
  • Helm — The Kubernetes package manager (charts)
  • HPE Morpheus — Hybrid-cloud management & orchestration (REST API)
  • Hyper-V Live Migration — Move running Hyper-V VMs between hosts with no downtime
  • k0s — Zero-friction single-binary Kubernetes
  • k3d — k3s in Docker — lightweight multi-node clusters
  • K3s — Lightweight certified Kubernetes (self-hosted)
  • kind — Kubernetes IN Docker — disposable clusters
  • kubeadm — The official cluster bootstrapper (vanilla K8s)
  • Kubernetes — The container orchestrator (kubectl)
  • Lima — Linux virtual machines (container machines) on macOS
  • MicroK8s — Canonical's low-ops Kubernetes (snap)
  • Microsoft Hyper-V — Windows Server hypervisor (Type-1)
  • minikube — Local single-node Kubernetes for development
  • nerdctl — Docker-compatible CLI for containerd
  • Nomad — HashiCorp workload orchestrator (self-hosted)
  • Nutanix — HCI platform — AHV hypervisor + Prism management
  • OpenShift / OKD — Red Hat's enterprise Kubernetes platform
  • OpenShift Virtualization — Run VMs alongside containers on OpenShift (KubeVirt)
  • OpenStack — Open-source private-cloud IaaS platform
  • OrbStack — Fast Docker & Linux machines for macOS
  • Platform9 — Managed Kubernetes / private cloud (SaaS control plane)
  • Podman — Daemonless, Docker-compatible containers
  • Portainer — Web UI for Docker & Kubernetes (self-hosted)
  • Proxmox VE — Open-source virtualization — KVM VMs + LXC containers
  • Proxmox VE Live Migration — Live-migrate KVM VMs across Proxmox cluster nodes
  • Rancher — Multi-cluster Kubernetes management (self-hosted)
  • Rancher Desktop — Desktop Kubernetes + container runtime for Mac
  • RKE2 — Rancher's security-focused Kubernetes (Gov-grade)
  • Scale Computing HyperCore — SC//HyperCore HCI appliance (HC3) — REST API on :443
  • Talos Linux — API-managed immutable OS purpose-built for Kubernetes
  • VergeOS — Verge.io — integrated virtualization, storage and networking
  • VMware vMotion — Live-migrate running VMs between ESXi hosts
  • VMware vSphere — Enterprise virtualization — ESXi hypervisor + vCenter
  • Watchtower — Auto-update running Docker containers
  • XCP-ng — Open-source Xen hypervisor (XenServer alternative)

CI/CD (23)

  • Argo CD — GitOps continuous delivery for Kubernetes (self-hosted)
  • Azure DevOps — Azure Pipelines, Repos, Boards & Artifacts (cloud)
  • Bitbucket Pipelines — CI/CD built into Bitbucket Cloud (cloud)
  • Blacksmith — Managed high-performance CI runners for GitHub Actions (cloud)
  • Buildkite — Hybrid CI — your agents, their dashboard (cloud)
  • Buildkite Agent — Self-hosted runner for Buildkite pipelines
  • CircleCI — Cloud CI/CD with fast parallelism (cloud)
  • CodeRabbit — AI code reviewer for pull requests (cloud + CLI/IDE)
  • Concourse — Pipeline-centric CI with reproducible builds (self-hosted)
  • Depot — Remote build acceleration — Docker & GitHub Actions runners (cloud)
  • Drone CI — Container-native CI server (self-hosted)
  • Flux CD — GitOps toolkit for Kubernetes (self-hosted)
  • GitHub Actions — CI/CD in GitHub — live build & deploy monitor (cloud)
  • GitHub Actions Runner — Self-hosted runner for GitHub Actions
  • GitLab CI/CD — Pipelines built into GitLab (cloud or self-hosted)
  • GitLab Runner — Self-hosted runner for GitLab CI/CD
  • GoCD — Open-source CI/CD with value-stream pipelines (self-hosted)
  • Jenkins — The classic self-hosted automation server
  • Jenkins Agent — Build node that connects to a Jenkins controller
  • Spinnaker — Multi-cloud continuous delivery (self-hosted)
  • TeamCity — JetBrains CI/CD server (self-hosted or cloud)
  • Travis CI — Hosted CI for open source & teams (cloud)
  • Woodpecker CI — Lightweight container-native CI

Service Mesh (Kubernetes) (12)

  • Apache APISIX — Dynamic, high-performance API gateway (self-hosted)
  • AWS App Mesh — Managed Envoy service mesh on AWS (ECS/EKS/EC2)
  • Cilium Service Mesh — eBPF-based, sidecarless service mesh & CNI
  • Consul Connect — HashiCorp Consul service mesh & discovery
  • Envoy Gateway — Gateway API management plane for Envoy Proxy (self-hosted)
  • Gloo Mesh — Istio-based multi-cluster service mesh (solo.io)
  • Istio — Envoy-based service mesh for Kubernetes
  • Kong Gateway — Cloud-native API gateway on Envoy/Nginx (self-hosted / cloud)
  • Kuma — Universal service mesh (Kong, CNCF)
  • Linkerd — Lightweight, fast CNCF service mesh
  • NGINX Service Mesh — Lightweight service mesh on NGINX/NGINX Plus (F5)
  • Tyk — Open-source API gateway & management (self-hosted / cloud)

Infrastructure as Code (10)

  • Ansible — Agentless configuration management & automation (CLI)
  • AWS CDK — Define AWS infra in code, synth to CloudFormation (CLI)
  • AWS CloudFormation — Native AWS infrastructure as code (templates / CLI)
  • Chef — Policy-as-code configuration management (Progress Chef)
  • OpenTofu — Open-source, community fork of Terraform (CLI)
  • Packer — Build identical machine images for any platform (CLI)
  • Pulumi — Infrastructure as code in real languages (CLI / cloud)
  • Puppet — Declarative configuration management at scale (Perforce)
  • Salt — Event-driven remote execution & config management (CLI)
  • Terraform — HashiCorp's declarative infrastructure as code (CLI)

Browse all services →

Run it all from one Mac app.

FrontierStack installs, monitors and secures the whole stack — locally and across your fleet — from a single native macOS app.

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