container-orbit

orbit delegates your local Docker to a beefier machine on your LAN over SSH. Heavy docker build, docker run, and docker compose execute on that machine — using its RAM, CPU and disk — while published container ports are forwarded straight back to your localhost, so it feels like Docker is still running locally.

Two roles:

  • ▸Client — your laptop. Runs the docker CLI and receives forwarded ports.
  • ▸Host — the beefy machine (another Mac, a gaming PC, a Linux box). Runs the real Docker engine and exposes its socket over SSH.
orbit manages a standard docker context — it does not wrap the docker binary — so every tool that respects DOCKER_HOST works unchanged.

It works with any engine that speaks the Docker socket: Docker Desktop, OrbStack, Rancher Desktop, and colima. See the product page for the overview.