docker context create

Create a context

Usage

docker context create [OPTIONS] CONTEXT

Description

Creates a new context. This allows you to quickly switch the cli configuration to connect to different clusters or single nodes.

Options

OptionShortDefaultDescription
--default-stack-orchestratorDeprecated Default orchestrator for stack operations to use with this context (swarm, kubernetes, all)
--descriptionDescription of the context
--dockerset the docker endpoint
--fromcreate context from a named context
--kubernetesDeprecated Kubernetes set the kubernetes endpoint

Examples

Create a context with a docker endpoint (--docker)

To create a context from scratch provide the docker and, if required, kubernetes options. The example below creates the context my-context with a docker endpoint of /var/run/docker.sock:

$ docker context create \
    --docker host=unix:///var/run/docker.sock \
    my-context

Create a context based on an existing context (--from)

Use the --from=<context-name> option to create a new context from an existing context. The example below creates a new context named my-context from the existing context existing-context:

$ docker context create --from existing-context my-context

If the --from option is not set, the context is created from the current context:

$ docker context create my-context

This can be used to create a context out of an existing DOCKER_HOST based script:

$ source my-setup-script.sh
$ docker context create my-context

To source the docker endpoint configuration from an existing context use the --docker from=<context-name> option. The example below creates a new context named my-context using the docker endpoint configuration from the existing context existing-context:

$ docker context create \
    --docker from=existing-context \
    my-context

Docker endpoints configurations, as well as the description can be modified with docker context update.

Refer to the docker context update reference for details.