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Colima's virtual disk and cached images: where they are and how to shrink them

Colima runs Docker in a Lima virtual machine with its own disk, plus a cache of downloaded images. How to measure both and reclaim space safely.

4 min read

Colima gives you Docker on a Mac through a Lima virtual machine. Space goes to two places: the VM's disk, where images and containers live, and a cache of downloaded VM images.

colima list
du -sh ~/.colima 2>/dev/null
du -sh ~/Library/Caches/lima ~/Library/Caches/colima 2>/dev/null
docker system df

Free space

# Inside the VM
docker system prune -a

# Cached downloads of VM images
colima prune

Start over with a smaller disk

If the VM's disk has grown and pruning does not shrink it on your Mac, delete and recreate the profile with a size limit:

colima delete
colima start --disk 40

Other options: OrbStack, Podman. Local Kubernetes clusters on top of these are covered in Kubernetes local clusters.

Related: Rancher Desktop taking up space on Mac and Lima VMs taking up space on Mac.

Common questions

Where does Colima store its disk on a Mac?

Under ~/.colima, with Lima's VM files inside. Downloaded VM images are cached separately in ~/Library/Caches.

How do I reduce Colima's disk size?

Prune Docker inside it first. To shrink the disk itself, delete the profile with colima delete and start it again with a smaller --disk value.

What does colima prune do?

It removes cached downloads such as VM images, not your containers or images.

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