wtf is berth?

berth is a native macOS app for managing Linux containers through apple/container, Apple's tool for running Linux containers as lightweight per-container virtual machines on Apple silicon computers. Think of it as a Docker-Desktop-style graphical interface, but built specifically for Apple's own container engine instead of Docker. It talks to that engine directly, without going through a separate background daemon or shelling out to command line tools for the important parts, which gives it real streaming logs and live stats in a proper Mac interface. The app covers the everyday container workflow across eight screens. A Dashboard shows running and total container counts, disk usage, and live CPU and memory gauges with a history chart. A Containers screen lets you search, filter, start, stop, kill, restart and delete containers, with detail tabs for configuration, live logs, live stats, and a raw JSON view. An Images screen lets you pull, delete and prune images, and view their layer history. There are also screens for managing Volumes, Networks, and registry logins stored in the macOS keychain, plus a Run screen that builds a container run command with a live preview of exactly what will execute. One feature, building images, is not yet implemented and is currently a placeholder. Installation means downloading a disk image from the project's releases page and installing apple/container separately, since berth is only a front end for it, not a replacement. Because the app is not signed with a paid Apple developer account, macOS will block it on first launch, and the README walks through the one-time approval steps needed in System Settings. Under the hood, berth adds apple/container as a Swift package dependency and calls its client code directly from a single actor that handles all communication with the engine, keeping that work off the main thread. It requires a Mac with Apple silicon running macOS 26, plus Xcode 26 to build it yourself, and it deliberately runs without Apple's App Sandbox, similar to how Docker Desktop operates, because the sandbox would block the connection it needs to the container engine. The project is released under the MIT license.