🖥️ dtop

Important

dtop has been rewritten in Rust on the master branch. The Go version is available on the v1 branch. Version v0.3.x is the first release of the Rust version. There are some breaking changes compared to the previous version.

A terminal based dashboard for Docker that monitors multiple hosts in real-time.

Overview

dtop provides a comprehensive summary of all Docker containers running on your system, displayed directly in your terminal. Get instant visibility into container status, resource usage, and key metrics without leaving the command line. It supports ssh, tcp and local connections and integrates with Dozzle for container logs.

Features

• 💻 Real-time monitoring - Live updates of container status and metrics
• ⚡ Lightweight - Insanely fast and lightweight using Rust
• 🌍 Multi-host support - Monitor containers across multiple hosts
• 🔍 Dozzle - Supports opening Dozzle links via keyboard shortcuts
• 📝 Log streaming - View container logs in real-time

Roadmap

• Sort containers by name and status
• Implement log view streaming (basic)
• Support mouse scrolling
• Support TLS certs via DOCKER_CERT_PATH
• Responsive columns for narrow view
• Support stopping, starting and removing containers
• Support container health status
• Search or filter for containers
• Support simple JSON parsing and formatting
• Add support for disk IO.
• Add support for Kubernetes clusters
• Configurable columns and saving preferences

Installation

dtop can be installed through multiple package managers or by downloading the binary directly.

Homebrew

Install using Homebrew (macOS and Linux):

brew install --cask amir20/homebrew-dtop/dtop

Docker

dtop is released as a docker image. You can pull it from Github.

docker run -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock -it ghcr.io/amir20/dtop

Currently, the image is available for amd64 and arm64 architectures.

Install Script

Downloads the latest release from GitHub.

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -LsSf https://github.com/amir20/dtop/releases/latest/download/dtop-installer.sh | sh

Install from Source

dtop is written in Rust can be installed using Cargo.

cargo install dtop

Self-Update

dtop includes a built-in self-update feature to easily upgrade to the latest version:

dtop update

This command will:

• Check GitHub releases for the latest version
• Download and install the update if a newer version is available
• Automatically replace the current binary with the new version

Note

The self-update feature is only available in binaries installed via the install script or downloaded from GitHub releases. Docker images should be updated by pulling the latest image, and cargo installations should use cargo install dtop --force.

Command Line Options

By default, dtop will connect to the local Docker daemon using /var/run/docker.sock. DOCKER_HOST is also supported to connect to other hosts.

> dtop --help
A terminal-based Docker container monitoring tool with real-time CPU and memory metrics

Usage: dtop [OPTIONS] [COMMAND]

Commands:
  update  Update dtop to the latest version
  help    Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -H, --host <HOST>
          Docker host(s) to connect to. Can be specified multiple times.

          Examples:
            --host local                    (Connect to local Docker daemon)
            --host ssh://user@host          (Connect via SSH)
            --host ssh://user@host:2222     (Connect via SSH with custom port)
            --host tcp://host:2375          (Connect via TCP to remote Docker daemon)
            --host tls://host:2376          (Connect via TLS)
            --host local --host ssh://user@server1 --host tls://server2:2376  (Multiple hosts)

          For TLS connections, set DOCKER_CERT_PATH to a directory containing:
            key.pem, cert.pem, and ca.pem

          If not specified, will use config file or default to "local"

  -i, --icons <ICONS>
          Icon style to use for the UI [default: unicode]

          Options:
            unicode  - Standard Unicode icons (works everywhere)
            nerd     - Nerd Font icons (requires Nerd Font installed)

  -h, --help
          Print help (see a summary with '-h')

  -V, --version
          Print version

Configuration File

dtop supports command line flags or configuration file. The configuration file reads from the following locations (in priority order):

1. ./config.yaml or ./config.yml
2. ./.dtop.yaml or ./.dtop.yml
3. ~/.config/dtop/config.yaml or ~/.config/dtop/config.yml
4. ~/.dtop.yaml or ~/.dtop.yml

Note

Both yaml and yml files are supported.

Here's an example configuration:

hosts:
  - host: local
    dozzle: http://localhost:3100/ # this is optional
  - host: tcp://host2:2375
    dozzle: http://host2:3100/
  - host: ssh://user@host
    dozzle: http://host:8080/

See config.example.yaml for more examples.

Nerd Font Icons

dtop supports Nerd Fonts for enhanced icon display. Nerd Fonts are fonts that have been patched to include additional glyphs and icons commonly used in terminal applications.

Installing Nerd Fonts

1. Visit nerdfonts.com/font-downloads
2. Download a patched font (e.g., "FiraCode Nerd Font", "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font")
3. Install the font on your system
4. Configure your terminal emulator to use the Nerd Font

Using Nerd Font Icons

Once you have a Nerd Font installed and configured in your terminal, enable Nerd Font icons in dtop:

# Via command line
dtop --icons nerd

# Or in config file
icons: nerd

Note

If icons appear as boxes or question marks, ensure your terminal is using a Nerd Font. The default unicode mode works with any terminal font.

Supported Connections

Local Docker

Monitor containers running on the local Docker daemon using --host local. dtop respects the DOCKER_HOST environment variable. If DOCKER_HOST is not set, it falls back to the default Docker socket location (/var/run/docker.sock on Linux/macOS).

dtop --host local
# or simply
dtop

Remote HTTP Docker

Connect to remote Docker daemons over unencrypted TCP connections. This is useful for development environments but should only be used on trusted networks.

dtop --host tcp://host2:2375

Warning

TCP connections are unencrypted. Only use on trusted networks or with proper firewall rules.

Remote TLS Docker

Connect to remote Docker daemons over encrypted TLS connections. Requires certificates to be configured via the DOCKER_CERT_PATH environment variable.

export DOCKER_CERT_PATH=/path/to/certs  # Directory containing key.pem, cert.pem, and ca.pem
dtop --host tls://host2:2376

SSH

Establish an SSH connection to a remote host and monitor containers running on it. This is the recommended method for secure remote connections.

dtop --host ssh://user@host
# With custom port
dtop --host ssh://user@host:2222

Multiple Hosts

You can monitor multiple Docker hosts simultaneously by specifying multiple --host flags:

dtop --host local --host tcp://host2:2375 --host ssh://user@host

Note

Currently, Dozzle url can only be configured in the configuration file. There is no way to provide it directly in the command line flags.

Related Projects & Inspirations

I am a big fan of ctop. ctop inspired me to create Dozzle but in the browser. However, it seems like ctop is no longer maintained. I considered forking ctop but deploying with same name would be challenging. I created dtop for my personal use case. I often want to see all my containers at a glance across multiple hosts. dtop achieves that by supporting remote hosts via ssh or tcp. Additionally, since I use Dozzle, I integrated Dozzle into dtop to provide a seamless experience for monitoring container logs.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.