Requirements¶
StackVo runs on your machine and puts each project in a Docker container. So it needs three things, and the third is small.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Docker | Docker Desktop on macOS and Windows, Docker Engine on Linux. Podman, Colima and OrbStack are recognised too. |
| Operating system | macOS 10.15 or later, Windows 10 or later, Linux on x86_64 or aarch64. |
| Disk | About 27 MB for the app. Docker images take more — count on a few gigabytes over time. |
What you do not need¶
- No PHP, Node, Python, Go, Ruby or Rust on your machine. Every runtime lives inside a project's container. A host with no PHP at all runs a PHP project fine.
- No package manager. Nothing is installed through Homebrew, apt or Chocolatey.
- No permanent admin rights. The one elevated action is writing a line
into your hosts file so
shop.locresolves. The app shows the exact change first and asks once.
Docker, by platform¶
Install Docker Desktop, or one of the alternatives StackVo recognises: OrbStack, Colima. Start it once; StackVo finds the socket on its own.
Install Docker Desktop and start it. StackVo connects through Docker's named pipe.
Windows is the least tested platform
The logic is tested on every platform and Windows is in the CI matrix, but the hosts-file write through UAC, the pipe against a real Docker Desktop and domain resolution in a browser have not been verified on a real machine yet. If something is off, please open an issue.
Install Docker Engine from your distribution, or Podman. With Podman, the rootless socket is looked for first.
If Docker is not running
The app still opens. It says so on the dashboard and offers to start Docker for you. Nothing else works until the engine is up, but you never stare at a blank window.
Ports¶
Projects are served through Traefik, so ports 80 and 443 should be free. Something else holding one of them is the commonest first-run problem; Settings → Doctor names the port and the program that has it.
Next: Installation.