[note] Mac — Using Colima instead of Docker Desktop: FAQ

Note: This page is an AI-generated (gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07) translation from Traditional Chinese and may contain minor inaccuracies.

📌 Introduction

To use Docker on a Mac, you don’t have to install the official Docker Desktop; you can use lighter alternatives like Colima. However, if you previously installed Docker Desktop and later installed the Docker CLI via Homebrew, leftover settings may cause some errors.

🚀 Steps

Error messages

# Error 1
docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///Users/XXXXXXXX/.docker/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

# Error 2
docker: error getting credentials - err: exec: "docker-credential-desktop": executable file not found in $PATH, out: ``

Cause

These errors occur when Docker Desktop was initially used and then removed in favor of Colima, but some original settings remained in use.

Solution

Error 1

Installing with brew install docker installs the Docker CLI only, not the Docker Engine. Because the Docker Engine must run on a Linux-based system and macOS isn’t Linux, you need to provide a VM. Docker Desktop used to run a VM in the background, so this wasn’t noticeable; after removing Docker Desktop you must provide a VM for Docker to run.

1. Install colima

   brew install colima

2. Start colima

   colima start

3. Use Docker commands normally

Error 2

If Docker Desktop was previously installed, some settings may persist and cause this error.

1. Edit config.json

   nano ~/.docker/config.json

2. Remove the following section

   {
     "credsStore": "desktop"
   }

🔁 Recap

This note summarizes two common errors:

1. Docker cannot connect to the daemon
2. docker-credential-desktop not found causing credential errors

🔗 References

• Day 07：Developing for Kubernetes with KinD - MacOS
• Using Colima to quickly build a Kubernetes development environment