Using Containers

Container List

The main view shows all containers on your system. Each entry displays the container name, image, status, and exposed ports.

Containers are organized in two groups:

Compose projects — containers started via docker compose are grouped under their project name. You can expand or collapse each group.
Standalone — containers started individually appear in a flat list.

Status Indicators

Icon	State
Green	Running
Yellow	Paused
Red	Stopped / Exited
Spinner	Starting / Stopping

Operations

Start / Stop / Restart — use the control buttons next to each container, or right-click for the context menu.

Remove — removes a stopped container. Running containers must be stopped first, or use force-remove from the context menu.

Batch operations — select multiple containers with ⌘-click, then apply an action to all selected containers at once.

Creating Containers

Click Run from the Images view to create a container from an image. The run dialog lets you configure:

Container name
Port mappings
Environment variables
Volume mounts
Network
Resource limits
Restart policy

For most development workflows, the defaults work well. Override only what you need.

Filtering and Search

Use the search bar at the top of the container list to filter by name, image, or status.

The filter persists across navigation. Clear it with Esc or the clear button.

Container Detail Tabs

Select a container to open its detail view. Information is organized across tabs:

Logs stream in real time. New lines appear at the bottom as they are written. The view auto-scrolls to follow output unless you scroll up manually.

Search — type in the search bar to highlight matching lines. The viewer jumps to the first match and shows a count of total matches.

Timestamps — toggle the clock icon to show or hide timestamps.

Follow mode — keeps the log viewer scrolled to the bottom. Scrolling up pauses it. Click Resume or scroll to the bottom to re-enable.

Copy — select log lines and use ⌘C to copy. Right-click for options to copy with or without timestamps.

The log viewer handles high-throughput output without blocking the UI. For containers that produce extremely high log volumes, use docker logs --tail from the CLI to limit initial output.

Get an interactive shell inside a running container. ArcBox picks the best available shell automatically: /bin/bash if present, otherwise /bin/sh.

This is equivalent to:

docker exec -it <container> /bin/bash

Colors, cursor movement, and interactive programs (like top or vim) work as expected. ⌘C / ⌘V for copy and paste. The terminal resizes with the window.

You can open multiple independent terminal sessions to the same container.

The terminal requires a running container with a shell binary. Stopped containers and scratch-based images do not support terminal access.

The full configuration of a container:

Environment variables — all ENV values set at build time or runtime
Port mappings — host-to-container port bindings
Mount points — bound volumes and bind mounts with source and destination paths
Network — attached networks, IP addresses, and aliases
Labels — container labels including Compose metadata
Health check — configured health check command and current status
Restart policy — the container's restart behavior

This is the same data as docker inspect <container>, organized into readable sections instead of raw JSON.

Live resource usage for a running container:

CPU — percentage of allocated CPU time in use
Memory — current RSS and configured limit
Network I/O — bytes sent and received since container start
Disk I/O — read and write throughput

Stats update in real time. The graphs show a rolling window of recent activity.

Real-time Sync

ArcBox Desktop listens to Docker events in real time. Containers created or modified via the CLI, Compose, or other tools appear in the GUI within a fraction of a second.

This works in both directions — actions taken in the GUI are reflected immediately in docker ps and other CLI tools.