Docker Compose for WSL containers.

rcompose

Windows 11 can now run Linux containers natively with wslc.exe, no Docker Desktop required. It just doesn't come with Compose. rcompose fills that gap: point it at your existing compose.yaml and run rcompose up.

PS>irm https://ricardoborges.github.io/rcompose/install.ps1 | iex

Installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\rcompose and adds it to your PATH. No admin rights. Works on x64 and ARM64.

Same commands you already know

If you've used docker compose, there's nothing new to learn. From any folder with a compose file:

# start everything in the background
rcompose up -d

# see what's running, then follow the logs
rcompose ps
rcompose logs -f

# open a shell in a service
rcompose exec web sh

# stop and clean up
rcompose down -v

Also there: build, pull, start, stop, restart and config, along with -f, -p, --env-file and --profile.

What it does for you

Starts things in the right order, fast. Services that don't depend on each other come up in parallel, and depends_on conditions like service_healthy are respected.
Only touches what changed. Running rcompose up again recreates just the containers whose configuration is different, the same way Docker Compose does.
Copes with the preview's rough edges. The WSL container preview sometimes throws transient errors when several containers start at once. rcompose retries them instead of failing halfway.
Tells you what won't work. When your file uses something wslc can't do yet, like restart policies or Linux-path bind mounts, you get a warning rather than a silent surprise.

Before you install

You need Windows 11 with the WSL container preview installed, so that wslc.exe is available. rcompose finds it through WSLC_BIN, then your PATH, then C:\Program Files\WSL\wslc.exe.

To update, run the install command again. To pin a version, set $env:RCOMPOSE_VERSION = "v0.1.0" first. Prefer building from source? cargo install --path crates/rcompose-cli from a clone of the repository works too.