Install buildx

[halostatue]

It doesn’t matter much from my perspective, because I’m using buildkit (via DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1), but I’m curious how one would install buildx on macOS for use with Colima, as brew install docker does not seem to include it. I can obviously install Docker desktop, but that sort of defeats the purpose.

Those of you using it, how have you installed it? Manual plug-in installation?

[abiosoft]

ARCH=amd64 # change to 'arm64' for m1
VERSION=v0.8.2
curl -LO https://github.com/docker/buildx/releases/download/${VERSION}/buildx-${VERSION}.darwin-${ARCH}
mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins
mv buildx-${VERSION}.darwin-${ARCH} ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
chmod +x ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
docker buildx version # verify installation

[mrs83]

this worked in Sept 2025!

[sarahsturgeon]

combined and modified the scripts here to make something that should work for any OSX device (probably).

installs the latest version for either architecture (arm64 or x86_64/amd64)

certainly, it worked for my M4 in Oct 2025:

echo "Installing buildx plugin for OSX" && \
    ARCH=$(uname -m) && \
    ([[ "$ARCH" == "x86_64" ]] && ARCH="amd64" || true) && \
    VERSION=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/docker/buildx/releases/latest | jq -r .name) && \
    FILENAME="buildx-${VERSION}.darwin-${ARCH}" && \
    echo "Downloading Docker Buildx ${VERSION} for ${ARCH}..." && \
    curl --fail --location --output "$FILENAME" "https://github.com/docker/buildx/releases/download/${VERSION}/${FILENAME}" && \
    mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins && \
    mv -v "$FILENAME" ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx && \
    chmod +x ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx && \
    echo "Successfully installed docker-buildx." && \
    docker buildx version

[axel-eck]

@sarahsturgeon scripts worked like a charm. Thanks

[sarahsturgeon]

👍

After writing that, I actually decided I preferred the other solution: Installing with Homebrew and then adding the homebrew cli-plugins dir as a plugin dir in docker.

This way, buildx will be updated any time I do my normal brew upgrade without having to re-run a script or manually download the binary again.

brew install docker-buildx;

then add to ~/.docker/config.json:

"cliPluginsExtraDirs": [
    "/opt/homebrew/lib/docker/cli-plugins"
]

I also restarted colima but didn't check if it was necessary:

colima restart

(linking the bin would also work, but this made more sense to me)

The only potential downside is if you just needed some new feature/functionality from buildx that hadn't yet made it to the formula (no idea how realistic this is)

[flipcc]

Terrific response. Love the "brew-way"!

[fullheart]

Hi together,

Thank you for this solution!

I created for my this installer Script to install with GitHub CLI the latest buildx command on my Mac with M1. This script install always the latest version of the command:

https://github.com/fullheart/my-dev-env/blob/main/osx/docker/colima/install_latest_buildx.sh

[amitds1997]

For me, this worked:

brew install docker-buildx
# Follow the caveats mentioned in the install instructions:
# mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins
# ln -sfn $(which docker-buildx) ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx
docker buildx install # To keep using the `docker build` install but with buildkit: https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/buildx_install/

Edit 1: Updated specific location in # ln -sfn /usr/local/opt/docker-buildx/bin/docker-buildx ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx with $(which docker-buildx).

[peraronsson]

Following these instructions, I first got docker: 'buildx' is not a docker command. when running docker buildx install.
A small modification was required on my M1; the symlink had to be changed to
ln -sfn /opt/homebrew/bin/docker-buildx ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx

[halostatue]

This could be generalized to ln -sfn $(which docker-buildx) ~/.docker/cli-plugins.

[connorads]

Following these instructions, I first got docker: 'buildx' is not a docker command. when running docker buildx install. A small modification was required on my M1; the symlink had to be changed to ln -sfn /opt/homebrew/bin/docker-buildx ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx

Thanks. I had to adjust it slightly to get it to work.

mkdir ~/.docker/cli-plugins
ln -sfn $(which docker-buildx) ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx

[nprokopic]

June 2025 update 😃 after installing buildx with brew install docker-buildx the additional step I did (that Homebrew itself suggests) was to add the following config to ~/.docker/config.json:

{
    "cliPluginsExtraDirs": [
        "/opt/homebrew/lib/docker/cli-plugins"
    ]
}

[RobertaMurniece]

This worked perfectly on m1! Sep 2025

[arthurspa]

I addition to @amitds1997 answer, I had to set DOCKER_HOST to point it to Colima docker socket. E.g. in my .zshrc I added export DOCKER_HOST="unix://$HOME/.colima/docker.sock". Otherwise I'd get this error:

NAME/NODE DRIVER/ENDPOINT STATUS  BUILDKIT PLATFORMS
colima *  docker                           
  colima  colima          running 20.10.20 linux/arm64, linux/amd64
default                   error            

Cannot load builder default: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?```

Pasted here in case someone else run in the same problem. I'm using Mac M1.

[halostatue]

This would be better to do as:

export DOCKER_HOST="$(docker context inspect --format '{{ .Endpoints.docker.Host }}')"

It’s worth noting that if you have multiple Colima contexts, you’ll probably want to have something like this Fish function that I use:

# Defined in /Users/austin/.config/fish/functions/set-docker-host.fish @ line 1
function set-docker-host
    command -sq docker
    or return 1

    set -l host (docker context inspect --format '{{ .Endpoints.docker.Host }}')
    or return 1

    set -gx DOCKER_HOST $host
end

In *sh, this would be something like (untested):

# Defined in /Users/austin/.config/fish/functions/set-docker-host.fish @ line 1
function set-docker-host() {
  command -v docker > /dev/null 2>/dev/null || return 1

  host="$(docker context inspect --format '{{ .Endpoints.docker.Host }}')" || return 1

  export DOCKER_HOST="${host}"
}

[nipunsharma12]

Docker_host would need to be updated for the newer versions of colima
export DOCKER_HOST="unix://$HOME/.colima/default/docker.sock"

[halostatue]

Not if you’re using docker contexts the way that I suggested in my reply.

[nipunsharma12]

yes, you're right.
-Thanks

[arun0009]

brew install docker-buildx
mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins
ln -sfn $HOMEBREW_PREFIX/opt/docker-buildx/bin/docker-buildx ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx

[jasonwang178]

My solution:

brew install docker-buildx

mkdir -p ~/.docker/cli-plugins
ln -s $(which docker-buildx) ~/.docker/cli-plugins/docker-buildx

colima restart
docker buildx version

[66Ton99]

One difference is that I used nix-env -iA nixpkgs.docker-buildx

[smiklos]

@abiosoft Would it not make sense to include the lack of buildx and how to install it somewhere in the documentation?

I'm using werf.io which by default uses the docker-engine. Building images didn't work until I disabled buildkit. I suppose installing buildx will also make it work but curios if any of the project should point this out for Colima users.

[debo]

Apologies for resuscitating this but my OCD is really killing me. I am running Colima and I am using buildx as well. What is really getting to me is that docker context ls works just fine but docker buildx ls reports an error on the default socket because it's point to docker default. Now, I know that if I set DOCKER_HOST to there right value the issue with buildx disappears but then docker context ls start throwing a warning because the env var is set.

Is there an alternative way that allow both commands to work just fine without needing to play around with env vars all the time? Many thanks for your help. Thank you.

[esafak]

You can install it with macports:

sudo port install docker-buildx-plugin