bulker

Multi-container computing environments

Get Started →View on GitHub ↗

Quick start

curl -sL https://bulker.io/install.sh | bash
bulker activate demo

fortune | cowsay

cowsay and fortune are now on your PATH, each running in its own container. See the tutorial.

Commands run in containers behind the scenes

Bulker creates shimlinks — drop-in replacements for command-line tools that act like native tools but run in containers. Activate samtools with bulker and invoke it by typing samtools. You’ll be using containers without knowing it.

Share interactive, multi-container environments

The atomic unit is not an individual container, but a collection of them. Activate multiple tools with one command: bulker activate namespace/toolset. Distribute multi-tool computing environments without creating a single bloated image.

Unify across servers, cloud, and local computing

Bulker is a layer on top of any container system (Docker or Apptainer). Differences are handled by bulker, so the interface is uniform regardless of host. Replace legacy environment modules with a single setup across servers, the cloud, and your laptop.