Setup Docker on macOS action

This action installs Docker on a macOS runner through Colima, Lima-VM, and Homebrew.

I intend this action to be kept as simple as possible:

• No other OS will be supported.
• Binaries will be downloaded directly from the source when possible.

Currently supported public runner images

• macos-13

ARM64 processors (M1, M2, M3 series) used on macos-14 images are unsupported!

Warning

Apple is adding support for nested virtualization on M3 processors and beyond on macOS 15 (see Apple Developer docs). This action will be updated to support it as soon as Github starts to update the runners accordingly.

Yes, exactly what you just read. These processors do not support nested virtualization. This means Colima can't start the VM to run Docker.

For the M1 processor there is no hope. It lacks the hardware support for this.

The M2 and M3 processors have such hardware support, but no software support from Apple's Hypervisor framework (so no hopes for QEMU) or Virtualization framework (alternative to QEMU).

I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do about it. All we can do is wait. If I miss the announcement of nested virtualization support, please open an issue.

Features

• Safety check to ensure the action is running in macOS.
• As simple and lightweight (downloads binaries directly when possible).

Inputs

inputs.lima (defaults to "latest")

The version of Lima to install. This can be any valid version from Lima releases page

inputs.colima (defaults to "latest")

The version of Colima to install. This can be any valid version from Colima releases page

inputs.colima-network-address (defaults to "false")

Starts Colima with a reachable network address through passing --network-address to the colima start command. Startup will be slower.

Outputs

colima-version

The version of Colima that was installed.

docker-client-version

The version of the Docker client that was installed.

docker-compose-version

The version of Docker Compose that was installed.