Why is there no documentation on using act under MacOS?

[iloving]

Bug report info

act version:            0.2.82
GOOS:                   darwin
GOARCH:                 arm64
NumCPU:                 10
Docker host:            DOCKER_HOST environment variable is not set
Sockets found:
	/var/run/docker.sock
	$HOME/.docker/run/docker.sock
Config files:
	/Users/myuser/Library/Application Support/act/actrc:
		-P ubuntu-latest=catthehacker/ubuntu:act-latest
		-P ubuntu-22.04=catthehacker/ubuntu:act-22.04
		-P ubuntu-20.04=catthehacker/ubuntu:act-20.04
		-P ubuntu-18.04=catthehacker/ubuntu:act-18.04
Build info:
	Go version:            go1.25.1
	Module path:           command-line-arguments
	Main version:
	Main path:
	Main checksum:
	Build settings:
		-buildmode:           exe
		-compiler:            gc
		-ldflags:             -X main.version=0.2.82
		DefaultGODEBUG:       containermaxprocs=0,decoratemappings=0,tlssha1=1,updatemaxprocs=0,x509sha256skid=0
		CGO_ENABLED:          1
		CGO_CFLAGS:
		CGO_CPPFLAGS:
		CGO_CXXFLAGS:
		CGO_LDFLAGS:
		GOARCH:               arm64
		GOOS:                 darwin
		GOARM64:              v8.0

Error: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?

Command used with act

doesn't matter

Describe issue

Act is made available on Mac, but there is zero documentation on how to actually use it. I'm also using Rancher Desktop rather than Docker Desktop. Between the two, I am completely unable to use act whatsoever.

It detects what sockets are available, and still manages to ignore them unless I set DOCKER_HOST. When I set DOCKER_HOST, it still can't connect. I created a symlink to /var/run/docker.sock. It still can't connect. Sudo? Nope.

I was finally able to somehow make it work using VS Code, with the github local actions extension. But to do it, I had to:

• Set the 'Act Command' setting to act --container-architecture linux/amd64 -P linux=-self-hosted
• run VS Code from the command line, setting DOCKER_HOST. DOCKER_HOST=$(docker context inspect --format '{{.Endpoints.docker.Host}}') code

It is completely unreasonable to force people to have to struggle through just basic usage, and have to spend hours or days googling, trying to find the choice tidbit of information they need to make it work.

Link to GitHub repository

No response

Workflow content

n/a

Relevant log output

n/a

Additional information

After much trial and error, I got VS Code Github Local Actions extension executing by configuring the Act Command setting to 'act --container-architecture linux/amd64 -P linux=-self-hosted' but I still can't get past the docker socket problem.

[panekj]

https://nektosact.com/missing_functionality/docker_context.html

[ChristopherHX]

Literally for me

• Install Podman Desktop
• You are asked to enable docker compatibility
• act now works out of box

YMMV

It is completely unreasonable to force people to have to struggle through just basic usage, and have to spend hours or days googling, trying to find the choice tidbit of information they need to make it work.

In my opinion, this is common in open source projects. People do not get paid for such improvements.