WSLCC — WSL Containers Compose

wslcc brings a docker compose-style workflow to Microsoft's WSL containers feature. It fills the gap of a missing compose command in wslc, and it can also drive the Docker CLI so you have a single, unified interface across both backends — locally or (with an optional unauthenticated HTTP endpoint) on a remote machine.

Status: early public-preview era tooling. WSL containers themselves are in public preview (2026); install with wsl --update --pre-release. Expect rough edges and breaking changes. Not production-ready.

Install

Prerequisites: Windows x64 with WSL pre-release (wsl --update --pre-release). Optionally Docker, for the docker provider.

There is no tagged release yet (packaging and winget manifests exist for when one is cut — see docs/roadmap.md milestone 0.2). Until then, build from source with the .NET 10 SDK:

dotnet build Wslcc.slnx
.\src\out\wslcc.exe daemon start

See CONTRIBUTING.md. After a release exists: winget install AdrianoRepetti.WSLCC, or download the win-x64 zip from GitHub Releases (self-contained — no SDK required to run).

Before removing an installed build, unregister autostart if you used it: wslcc daemon uninstall (then wslcc daemon stop if a daemon is still running).

Components

• wslcc — the command-line tool. Mirrors docker compose ... under a compose branch (wslcc compose up, wslcc compose ps, ...), plus wslcc daemon ... and wslcc version.
• wslccd — a small background daemon exposing a gRPC service (named pipe locally; optional HTTP for remote). Runs as a per-user process, on demand or started automatically at logon.
• A provider-agnostic core library, plus providers for WSL containers (wslc) and Docker (docker).

graph LR
  cli["wslcc (CLI)"] -->|gRPC over npipe/http| daemon["wslccd (daemon)"]
  gui["GUI (WinUI3, future)"] -.->|gRPC| daemon
  daemon --> core["Core engine"]
  core --> wslc["Provider: WSL containers"]
  core --> docker["Provider: Docker"]

Loading

Quick start

Bring up the sample stack (options go after the leaf command):

wslcc daemon start
wslcc compose up --project-directory examples/web-redis -d
wslcc compose ps --project-directory examples/web-redis
wslcc compose down --project-directory examples/web-redis

If a command says the daemon is not reachable, see docs/troubleshooting.md — an elevated shell often cannot talk to a non-elevated daemon (and vice versa).

wslcc talks to wslccd over a named pipe by default (npipe://wslccd). Use -H/--host to change transport (the compose commands use --wslcc-host/--wslcc-provider so they don't clash with standard docker compose options):

wslcc --help                                   # help
wslcc version -H npipe://wslccd                # local named pipe (default)
wslcc version -H http://remote-host:5211       # remote daemon over HTTP/2 (no auth yet)
wslcc compose version --wslcc-provider docker  # target a specific provider

Repository layout

• src/ — C# source (libraries, providers, daemon, CLI).
• tests/ — unit tests.
• docs/ — see docs/README.md for the index (architecture, CLI/daemon/compose references, compatibility, troubleshooting, roadmap).
• examples/ — sample compose projects (start with examples/web-redis).

Coming from docker compose? Start with docs/compatibility.md. See docs/architecture.md for the full picture and docs/todo.md for what's next (including a planned managed API NuGet package and a WinUI3 GUI). Contributors building from source need the .NET 10 SDK — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.