Try it on your computer

To see what Harbor is like before you buy hardware or rent a server, run it on your Mac with Docker Desktop. The installer knows it is on a Mac and keeps everything in one folder.

What you need#

• A Mac with Docker Desktop installed and running.
• A few GB of disk for the images.

Run the installer#

In a new, empty folder, without sudo:

mkdir harbor-trial && cd harbor-trial
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openharborhq/harbor/main/install.sh
less install.sh
sh install.sh

What to answer:

• Where should that live? Press enter: a harbor-data folder in this one.
• How should you reach Harbor? 3, on your own network.
• Address to publish on. 127.0.0.1, so only your Mac can reach it.
• Port. Press enter. If something already uses that port, such as a development server, the installer suggests another.
• Backup repository. Leave it empty.

It prints the address when it is done, such as http://127.0.0.1:3000. Open it, create an account as in First run, and drop in a test document.

The installer puts its harbor command in the harbor folder, since /usr/local/bin is usually not writable on a Mac: ./harbor/harbor status, ./harbor/harbor logs.

Remove it#

./harbor/harbor stop
docker compose -p harbor down --volumes
cd .. && rm -rf harbor-trial

--volumes also removes the database, which Docker Desktop keeps in its own storage rather than in the folder.