[Bug] Gateway auto-detection fails to discover Podman on macOS

Summary

Fresh install on macOS (Apple Silicon) with Podman running — gateway crashes on startup because auto-detection finds no compute driver. Podman is listed as a valid driver in the error message but is never probed during auto-detection.

Environment

macOS (Darwin, arm64)
OpenShell v0.0.58, installed via the install script (Homebrew)
Podman 5.7.1 installed via Homebrew, machine running (podman machine list shows Currently running)
Docker is not installed

Steps to Reproduce

Install OpenShell on a macOS machine that has Podman but not Docker:

curl -LsSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NVIDIA/OpenShell/main/install.sh | sh

Gateway fails to start and crash-loops.

Observed Behavior

Gateway exits with:

Error:   × configuration error: no compute driver configured and auto-detection found
  │ no suitable driver; set --drivers or OPENSHELL_DRIVERS to kubernetes,
  │ podman, docker, or vm

openshell doctor check only probes Docker:

Checking system prerequisites...

  Docker ............. Error:   × failed to execute docker info
  ╰─▶ No such file or directory (os error 2)

No Podman check is performed despite Podman being a supported driver.

Expected Behavior

Auto-detection should probe all supported drivers (docker, podman, kubernetes, vm), not just Docker. On this system, podman info succeeds and the podman machine is running — it should be discovered automatically.

Workaround

Explicitly set the driver via env file:

mkdir -p ~/.config/openshell
echo 'OPENSHELL_DRIVERS=podman' > ~/.config/openshell/gateway.env
brew services restart openshell

Notes

openshell doctor check should also be updated to probe Podman (and other supported drivers), not just Docker.
On macOS with Homebrew, Podman is a common container runtime — this is a significant first-run UX issue.

Fix submitted in #1858 — adds a podman info CLI fallback to auto-detection when the API socket isn't at a well-known path.

fix(core): discover Podman API socket path during auto-detection

fix(core): fall back to podman CLI when no API socket is found (NVIDI…

fix(core): discover Podman API socket path during auto-detection

📋 triage-agent

Triage Assessment

Classification: bug-confirmed

Summary

This is a known macOS gateway auto-detection defect: Podman can be running and usable while OpenShell fails to select it automatically. The documented explicit-driver workaround is valid, and PR #1858 is the acknowledged fix.

Investigation

PR #1858 adds a Podman CLI fallback when no well-known API socket is found. The PR remains open but is currently conflicting with main, marked stale, still requires review, and has required checks pending.

Recommendation

Keep this issue open and track it through PR #1858. The PR needs to be refreshed against main and returned to a reviewable, passing state; if it cannot be revived, its approach should be carried into a replacement PR.

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[Bug] Gateway auto-detection fails to discover Podman on macOS #1834

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[Bug] Gateway auto-detection fails to discover Podman on macOS #1834

Description

Summary

Environment

Steps to Reproduce

Observed Behavior

Expected Behavior

Workaround

Notes

Activity

russellb commented on Jun 10, 2026

TaylorMutch commented on Jul 13, 2026

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