Container Engine

Dockflow supports Docker (default) and Podman as container engines for building and distributing images.

Configuration


# .dockflow/config.yml
container_engine: podman

Field	Type	Description	Default
`container_engine`	`"docker"` \| `"podman"`	Engine used for building and pushing images	Auto-detected

When omitted, Dockflow auto-detects the engine on the remote server. If podman is found, it’s used automatically — otherwise it falls back to docker.

How It Works

The container_engine setting controls build and distribution operations:

Build: docker build or podman build (local and remote)
Save/Load: docker save | docker load or podman save | podman load
Registry: docker login/push or podman login/push

Podman is CLI-compatible with Docker for these operations, so your docker-compose.yml and Dockerfiles work as-is.

k3s and containerd

When using orchestrator: k3s, images are always imported via k3s ctr -n k8s.io images import (containerd) regardless of the build engine. You can build with Docker or Podman locally, and Dockflow handles the transfer to containerd on the k3s node.


# With Docker + k3s:
docker save myapp:1.0 | ssh node "sudo k3s ctr -n k8s.io images import -"

# With Podman + k3s:
podman save myapp:1.0 | ssh node "sudo k3s ctr -n k8s.io images import -"

When to Use Podman

Rootless builds (no Docker daemon required)
Environments where Docker is not installed or not allowed
OCI-native workflows

Podman support applies to the build/distribution pipeline only. The orchestrator (swarm or k3s) is configured separately via the orchestrator field.

Example


# .dockflow/config.yml
project_name: "my-app"
orchestrator: k3s
container_engine: podman
 
# Build with Podman, deploy to k3s via containerd