docktui

A lightweight terminal UI for Docker. Manage containers, images, volumes, and networks from your terminal — Compose-aware, no mouse required.

Install

Run it without installing:

npx docktui

Or install globally:

npm install -g docktui
docktui

Releases are published to npm from GitHub Actions with provenance (npm audit signatures verifies them).

Features

• Compose-aware Stacks view — containers grouped by project with running / errored / stopped counts, collapsible per stack; u / d / r / p / B run docker compose up / down / restart / pull / up --build on the selected stack.
• Containers / Images / Volumes — live CPU and memory stats (memory as a percentage or used / limit, toggled with m), start / stop / restart / kill / remove with confirm dialogs.
• Networks — list Docker networks with driver, scope, attached-container count, creation time, and in-use status; remove unused networks (built-in networks and any with attached containers are protected).
• Detail panel — full metadata, mounts, environment, live CPU/MEM bars.
• Streaming log viewer with follow mode, scrollback cap, and color-coded stdout/stderr.
• Filter — press / from Stacks to filter by stack, service, or image name.
• Side rail navigation — 1–5 or Tab cycles views; click a live stack to jump to it.
• Help overlay — press h anywhere (except confirm dialogs / the stack filter) to toggle the key-binding reference.
• Shell into containers — x opens an external terminal exec'd into the selected container (macOS Terminal, Windows Terminal, common Linux emulators).
• Themes and a config file: four built-in themes (default, nord, gruvbox, dracula), your own colors on top, the view to open, the memory display and refresh rates, all in ~/.config/docktui/config.toml or as flags.
• Honors DOCKER_HOST — works with rootless Docker, podman, and remote daemons.

Requirements

• Node.js 20 or later
• A running Docker daemon (Docker Desktop on macOS/Windows, Docker Engine on Linux, or any podman/rootless setup)
• A 256-color or truecolor terminal (TERM=xterm-256color or COLORTERM=truecolor)

Configuration

Config file

docktui reads $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/docktui/config.toml at startup (~/.config/docktui/config.toml when XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set, on every OS). The file is optional; every key has a default.

theme = "nord"        # default, nord, gruvbox, dracula
view = "containers"   # stacks, containers, images, volumes, networks
memory = "absolute"   # percent, absolute (used of limit)

[refresh]             # polling intervals in seconds (1 to 3600)
containers = 5
resources = 10        # images, volumes, networks
stats = 2

[colors]              # your own colors, on top of the theme
accent = "#ff79c6"
bg = "#1e1e2e"

An invalid file, value or unknown key falls back to the default for that part and shows a message in the footer (and on stderr).

Themes

Theme
default	The original docktui palette
nord	Nord colors
gruvbox	Gruvbox dark
dracula	Dracula

Any key below can be set in [colors] as a "#rrggbb" hex color: bg, bgSoft, panel, bgSel, bgSelEdge, fg, dim, faint, rule, rule2, accent, purple, green, aqua, yellow, orange, red, pink.

Command line flags

Flag
-c, --config <path>	Read another config file (it must exist)
--theme <name>	Theme for this run
--view <name>	View to open
--memory <mode>	percent or absolute
-h, --help	Show the flags
-v, --version	Show the version

Flags override the config file, which overrides the defaults.

Custom Docker host

docktui auto-detects the daemon socket. To point it elsewhere, set DOCKER_HOST:

DOCKER_HOST=unix:///run/user/1000/docker.sock docktui          # rootless docker
DOCKER_HOST=unix:///run/user/1000/podman/podman.sock docktui   # podman
DOCKER_HOST=tcp://10.0.0.5:2375 docktui                        # remote daemon
DOCKER_HOST=npipe:////./pipe/docker_engine docktui             # Windows named pipe

Shell-into-container (x key)

Requires the docker CLI to be on your PATH. docktui launches your platform's native terminal with docker exec -it <id> sh (falls back to bash if available inside the container).

Key bindings

Global

Key	Action
1 – 5	Jump to Stacks / Containers / Images / Volumes / Networks
Tab / Shift+Tab	Cycle views
h	Toggle help overlay
m	Memory column: percent (31.4%) / used of limit (1.2G/16G)
q / Ctrl+C	Quit

Stacks

Key	Action
↑ ↓ / j k	Navigate tree
→ / ←	Expand / collapse stack
Enter	On a stack: toggle expand. On a service: open detail panel
u / d	On a stack: docker compose up -d / down (confirm)
r / p / B	On a stack: docker compose restart / pull / up --build -d
/	Open filter (Esc to clear)
l	Open log viewer
x	Shell into selected running container
s / r / K	On a service: stop / restart / kill running container (confirm)
S	On a service: start stopped container
d	On a service: remove stopped container (confirm)

Compose verbs run the docker CLI against the project's directory and compose files (read from the containers' Compose labels), so the files must be on this machine. A stack you take down stays in the tree, marked down, so u brings it back.

Containers

Same per-container actions as Stacks. Enter always opens the detail panel.

Detail panel

Same container actions as the list/tree (l, s, r, K, S, d, x) plus:

Key	Action
e	Toggle environment variables (expanded / collapsed)
↑ ↓	Scroll
Esc	Close

Log viewer

Key	Action
f	Toggle follow mode
g	Scroll to top
G	Scroll to bottom, re-enable follow
↑ / k	Scroll up (disables follow)
Esc	Close

Images, Volumes & Networks

Key	Action
↑ ↓ / j k	Navigate list
d	Delete unused item (confirm)

Networks additionally protect the built-in bridge / host / none networks and any network with attached containers — d on those shows a message instead of a confirm dialog. In-use detection is consistent with Images and Volumes: a network counts as in use whenever a container is attached, running or stopped.

Confirm dialog

y / Y to confirm · n / N / Esc to cancel

Troubleshooting

permission denied on the Docker socket (Linux)

Add your user to the docker group, then log out and back in:

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Windows: cannot connect to the daemon

By default docktui tries the named pipe //./pipe/docker_engine. If that fails, enable TCP in Docker Desktop (Settings → General → Expose daemon on tcp://localhost:2375 without TLS) and run:

DOCKER_HOST=tcp://localhost:2375 docktui

docktui requires a 256-color (or truecolor) terminal

Your $TERM is too narrow. Set it explicitly or use a modern terminal:

TERM=xterm-256color docktui

The 'docker' CLI is not on your PATH

You hit x (shell into container) but the docker binary isn't installed or isn't on PATH. Install Docker CLI or skip the x action — everything else works without it.

Development

git clone https://github.com/0xShady/docktui.git
cd docktui
npm install

npm run dev            # run from source with ts-node
npm run dev:watch      # same, restarting on changes in src/
npm run build          # compile to dist/
npm start              # run compiled output

npm test               # vitest, one-shot
npm run test:coverage  # generate ./coverage/index.html
npm run lint
npm run format

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the pre-PR checklist and how releases work, and CHANGELOG.md for release history.

License

MIT © Achraf El Fadili