ctc

container → compose

A terminal UI that turns your running Docker containers into a docker-compose.yml — with full runtime fidelity.

curl https://ctc.dothis.online | bash

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What it does

You have containers running that were started with a long docker run command you no longer remember. ctc reads them straight from the Docker daemon, lets you pick which ones to capture, and writes out a clean, accurate docker-compose.yml.

• Pick from a live list — every container (running and stopped), multi-select with the spacebar.
• Full runtime fidelity — image, ports, volumes, networks, command, entrypoint, restart policy, labels, capabilities, and more.
• GPU & runtime aware — captures --gpus, --runtime nvidia, and --network host/none/container: correctly.
• Only your env vars — filters out image-default environment variables, keeping just the ones you passed with -e.
• Preview, then save — review the generated YAML, tweak it in $EDITOR, and write it to docker-compose.yml.

Install

Requires Go 1.21+ on your PATH (the installer builds from source).

curl https://ctc.dothis.online | bash

The script builds ctc, installs it to your Go bin directory, and launches it. To install without launching:

go install github.com/chaiops/ctc@latest

Usage

Run it:

ctc

Keys

Container list

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Move cursor
space	Toggle selection
a	Select / clear all
enter	Build compose file
q	Quit

Preview

Key	Action
↑ / ↓	Scroll
e	Edit in $EDITOR
s	Save to docker-compose.yml
esc	Back to list
q	Quit

What gets captured

docker run flag / setting	compose field
image	image
-e KEY=VALUE	environment (image defaults filtered out)
-p host:container	ports
-v / --mount (bind)	volumes (read-only mounts keep :ro)
named volumes	volumes + top-level volumes:
--tmpfs	tmpfs
--network	networks + top-level networks:
--network host/none	network_mode
command / entrypoint	command / entrypoint
--restart	restart
-l / labels	labels
--privileged	privileged
--cap-add / --cap-drop	cap_add / cap_drop
--runtime	runtime
--gpus	deploy.resources.reservations.devices

The output targets modern Compose (v3-style, no deprecated version: key).

How it works

ctc shells out to the docker CLI (docker inspect, docker network inspect, …) and transforms the JSON into a compose file. It never talks to the daemon socket directly, so it works anywhere the docker command does.

docker ps ─▶ select ─▶ docker inspect ─▶ build YAML ─▶ preview ─▶ edit / save

Under the hood it is split into small, focused packages:

• internal/docker — runs the CLI and parses its JSON.
• internal/compose — a pure transform from container structs to compose YAML.
• internal/tui — the Bubble Tea interface.

Development

git clone https://github.com/chaiops/ctc
cd ctc
go test ./...     # run the suite
go run .          # launch against your local Docker
go build -o ctc . # produce a binary

Limitations

• If you passed -e FOO=<value> where <value> is byte-identical to the image's own default for FOO, it can't be distinguished from the default and is dropped — Docker records no provenance for env vars.
• Linux and macOS only.

License

MIT