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ctop

ctop is an interactive terminal dashboard for monitoring Docker containers.

It displays container status, CPU usage, memory usage, network activity, and process information.

The tool is installed through Homebrew and declared in the project Brewfile.

Installation

It is part of the curated Homebrew environment; see Homebrew setup to install everything at once.

Install ctop directly:

brew install ctop

Verify the installation:

ctop -v
brew list --formula | grep -x ctop

OrbStack compatibility

ctop expects the default Docker socket:

/var/run/docker.sock

OrbStack uses a different socket associated with the orbstack Docker context.

The managed Zsh profile exports DOCKER_HOST automatically when the OrbStack socket exists:

export DOCKER_HOST="unix://$HOME/.orbstack/run/docker.sock"

After applying the managed profile, reload it:

source ~/.zprofile

Display the OrbStack Docker endpoint:

docker context inspect orbstack \
  --format '{{.Endpoints.docker.Host}}'

Run ctop normally:

ctop

Usage

Launch the dashboard:

ctop

ctop monitoring demo Docker containers

Common controls include:

q       Quit
Enter   Open the selected container view
s       Sort containers
f       Filter containers

The exact shortcuts can be displayed from the built-in help screen.

Useful use cases

ctop is useful for:

  • monitoring several containers at once;
  • checking container restart loops;
  • diagnosing a local Docker Compose environment.

Relationship with other tools

ctop complements other container tools:

  • docker ps lists containers;
  • docker stats displays live resource usage;
  • OrbStack provides a graphical interface;
  • ctop provides a compact interactive terminal dashboard.

Troubleshooting

Confirm that OrbStack is running:

orbctl status

Verify that Docker can communicate with OrbStack:

docker info

Display the active Docker context:

docker context show

Display the OrbStack socket:

docker context inspect orbstack \
  --format '{{.Endpoints.docker.Host}}'

If ctop still tries to connect to /var/run/docker.sock, verify that the managed profile has been reloaded and that DOCKER_HOST points to the OrbStack socket:

echo "$DOCKER_HOST"

Safety

ctop can expose container management actions from its interface.

Before stopping, restarting, or removing a container, verify that it does not contain important transient work or production data.

Rollback

Remove ctop with Homebrew:

brew uninstall ctop

Then remove its entry from profiles/full/Brewfile.

← Docs index · Project README