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working-with-colima

Use when Docker commands fail with "Cannot connect to Docker daemon", when starting/stopping container environments, or when managing multiple Docker contexts on macOS - provides Colima lifecycle management, profile handling, and troubleshooting

$ 安裝

git clone https://github.com/technicalpickles/pickled-claude-plugins /tmp/pickled-claude-plugins && cp -r /tmp/pickled-claude-plugins/plugins/dev-tools/skills/working-with-colima ~/.claude/skills/pickled-claude-plugins

// tip: Run this command in your terminal to install the skill

SKILL.md

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name: working-with-colima description: Use when Docker commands fail with "Cannot connect to Docker daemon", when starting/stopping container environments, or when managing multiple Docker contexts on macOS - provides Colima lifecycle management, profile handling, and troubleshooting

Working with Colima

Overview

Colima provides container runtimes (Docker, Containerd) on macOS with minimal setup. It runs a Linux VM and exposes Docker via contexts.

Use this skill when:

Docker commands fail ("Cannot connect to Docker daemon")
Starting/stopping container runtime on macOS
Managing multiple Docker profiles/contexts
Troubleshooting container environment issues
Need SSH agent forwarding for Docker builds

Not for: Docker Compose, Kubernetes clusters, or Linux environments.

Quick Reference

Operation	Command
Start	`colima start` or `colima start <profile>`
Start with SSH agent	`colima start <profile> -s`
Stop	`colima stop` or `colima stop --force`
Status	`colima status -p <profile>`
List profiles	`colima list`
SSH into VM	`colima ssh` or `colima ssh -- <cmd>`
Get socket path	`colima status -p <profile> --json \| jq -r .docker_socket`

Docker Context Basics

Colima creates Docker contexts per profile:

Profile default → context colima
Profile work → context colima-work

# Switch context (global - affects all terminals)
docker context use colima-work

# Override per-session
export DOCKER_CONTEXT=colima-work

# Override per-command
docker --context colima-work ps

For details, see references/docker-contexts.md.

Common Issues

Docker daemon not connecting?

colima status - is it running?
docker context list - right context selected?
See references/troubleshooting.md for more

Need more VM resources?

colima stop && colima start --cpu 4 --memory 8

"Broken" status after restart?

colima stop --force && colima start

References

references/docker-contexts.md - Context switching, DOCKER_HOST, socket paths
references/profile-management.md - Creating, configuring, deleting profiles
references/troubleshooting.md - Common issues and solutions
references/common-options.md - Flags, VM types, resource configuration

Upstream Documentation

Local copies of official Colima docs (from github.com/abiosoft/colima):

references/colima-upstream/README.md - Official README with features and usage
references/colima-upstream/FAQ.md - Official FAQ and troubleshooting
references/colima-upstream/INSTALL.md - Installation options