Skip to main content

Containers

A Mother machine runs a Podman container runtime. Models use it internally, and you can use it to deploy your own services and apps on the same machine — a web app, a database for a project, an internal API — without touching Mother's own services.

Why the runtime is safe to share​

  • Your containers run in an isolated namespace, separate from Mother's system services and from model containers.
  • They do not reach node-internal services; they see the machine like a normal host you own.
  • They persist across reboots and are managed with standard Podman tooling.

Deploying your own service​

  1. Owner only: get shell access on the machine (the built-in desktop's terminal, or SSH if you enabled it).
  2. Build or pull your image as usual: 
    podman pull docker.io/library/postgres:16
  3. Run it with the ports and volumes you need: 
    podman run -d --name my-db -p 5432:5432 -v my-data:/var/lib/postgresql/data docker.io/library/postgres:16
  4. It is now a normal service on the machine — reachable from your sessions, your apps, and (if you publish the port) other machines on your network.

Good practice​

  • Name containers explicitly and use named volumes so data survives container replacement.
  • Do not bind ports below 1024 or ports used by Mother's own services.
  • A container is not backed up by Mother — for data you care about, export volumes or keep the source of truth outside the container.

Updating​

Use standard Podman commands (podman stop, podman rm, run the new version). Mother OS updates do not touch your containers.