Command line and AI tools

Ferrodock comes with two more programs, built on the same core as the app:

• fdock: Ferrodock on the command line.
• ferrodock-mcp: an MCP server, so AI tools such as Claude can see and manage your containers.

In the app, CLI & MCP at the bottom of the sidebar shows the commands for this computer, ready to copy, including the MCP setup for your AI tool.

Both use the same engine as Ferrodock: DOCKER_HOST when it's set, else Ferrodock's own engine when it runs, else your current Docker context. Pick another with --engine NAME; fdock engine lists them. The docker command itself can use Ferrodock's engine with docker context use ferrodock (see Ferrodock's own engine).

Getting them

Both come with every download of Ferrodock. To use them from any terminal, they need to be on your PATH:

• Windows and Linux: Ferrodock puts them there itself the first time it starts. On Windows it adds its folder to your user Path; on Linux it links them into ~/.local/bin. Open a new terminal afterwards.
• macOS: click Install fdock command under CLI & MCP in the sidebar. macOS asks for your password once, to link them into /usr/local/bin. (When that folder is writable without a password, Ferrodock does it by itself on first start.)
• Homebrew (brew install --cask ferrodock) puts both on your PATH already.
• With Cargo: cargo install ferrodock-cli ferrodock-mcp.

To do it by hand instead, CLI & MCP → Or do it yourself shows the commands for your computer. For example, on macOS:

sudo ln -sf /Applications/Ferrodock.app/Contents/MacOS/fdock /usr/local/bin/fdock
sudo ln -sf /Applications/Ferrodock.app/Contents/MacOS/ferrodock-mcp /usr/local/bin/ferrodock-mcp

fdock

fdock ps                         # running containers (-a: all)
fdock logs web -n 50 -f          # the last 50 lines, then follow
fdock stop web                   # also start, restart, pause, unpause
fdock rm web -f                  # remove; -f stops it first
fdock inspect web                # image, environment, ports, mounts, health
fdock images                     # also volumes, networks, projects
fdock pull nginx:alpine
fdock df                         # disk usage
fdock clean images build-cache   # free space; see below
fdock compose up ./shop          # also down, restart, logs [-f]
fdock engine                     # the engines, and which one is used
fdock engine start               # start it, and wait until it answers
fdock reset --yes                # remove everything; see below

Compose

fdock compose up, down, restart and logs take a Compose file, or the folder it's in (by default the current one), and run Docker Compose on the engine fdock uses. That's the docker compose command when there is one; without it (as with only Ferrodock's own engine), fdock downloads Ferrodock's copy of Compose once, the same one the app uses. up starts the services in the background; logs -f keeps printing new output.

Cleaning up

fdock clean frees disk space and says how much: containers (stopped ones), images (every image no container uses), dangling-images (untagged ones), volumes (no container mounts them; their data goes too), networks, build-cache, or all: everything but volumes, like docker system prune -a. Name several at once: fdock clean containers volumes.

fdock reset removes every container, image, network and volume, and the build cache, for a clean start; --keep-volumes keeps the volumes and their data. It never asks: without --yes it only says what it would remove, so a script can't reset by accident.

Starting the engine

fdock engine start starts the engine fdock would use (or the one given with --engine), unless one answers already, and waits until it answers. Another engine starts the way Ferrodock starts it, such as the docker service on Linux. Ferrodock's own engine runs inside the app on macOS and Windows, so fdock opens Ferrodock in the background, which starts it (with Start the Docker engine when Ferrodock opens on, as it is by default); on Linux it starts the engine's service directly.

Quick start

fdock quickstart lists the Quick start templates; fdock quickstart NAME runs one, with a free name and ports, and prints how to connect:

$ fdock quickstart postgres
Started postgres (postgres:17)
postgres://postgres:postgres@localhost:5432/app

Change what you need: --name db, --version 16, --port 6543 (once per port), --set POSTGRES_PASSWORD=secret, or --no-data to keep no volume.

JSON for scripts and AI tools

Every command takes --json and prints one line of compact JSON. Sizes and times are human-readable, and empty fields are left out, so it stays short:

$ fdock ps --json
[{"name":"db","id":"bbabe46e0d1a","image":"postgres:17","state":"running","status":"Up 4 seconds","ports":["6543->5432/tcp"]}]

When something fails, the message goes to standard error and fdock exits with status 1.

ferrodock-mcp

ferrodock-mcp speaks MCP over standard input and output. Add it to your AI tool once:

Tool	Setup
Claude Code	claude mcp add ferrodock -- ferrodock-mcp
Codex	codex mcp add ferrodock -- ferrodock-mcp
GitHub Copilot (VS Code)	code --add-mcp '{"name":"ferrodock","command":"ferrodock-mcp"}'
Gemini CLI	gemini mcp add ferrodock ferrodock-mcp
Cursor	the JSON below in ~/.cursor/mcp.json
Windsurf	the JSON below in ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json
Claude Desktop	the JSON below in claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ferrodock": { "command": "ferrodock-mcp" }
  }
}

Other MCP clients take the same: a server named ferrodock that runs ferrodock-mcp. CLI & MCP in the app's sidebar shows each of these with the right path for your computer, ready to copy.

Give the full path if it isn't on the PATH, such as /Applications/Ferrodock.app/Contents/MacOS/ferrodock-mcp or C:\Tools\Ferrodock\ferrodock-mcp.exe.

Tools

Looks	Changes things
engine_status, list_containers, container_logs, inspect_container, list_images, list_volumes, list_networks, list_projects, disk_usage, list_quickstart_templates	container_action (start, stop, restart, pause, resume), remove_container, pull_image, run_quickstart, engine_start, compose_up, compose_down, clean, reset

Tools that change something are marked that way, so your AI tool asks before it uses them; remove_container, compose_down, clean and reset are marked destructive. reset also does nothing unless it's called with confirm: true, and says it's only for when you've asked for it. compose_up and compose_down take a Compose file or its folder, as an absolute path. Environment values that look like secrets (passwords, tokens, keys) are hidden in inspect_container unless asked for.

To let an AI tool look but never change anything, start the server with --read-only: the tools that change things aren't offered at all.

claude mcp add ferrodock -- ferrodock-mcp --read-only