LocalStack in Docker

Running LocalStack in Docker on Ubuntu 26.04

LocalStack 63,725 is one container (1.77 GB unpacked) whose gateway serves every service on port 4566. Plain docker run is all a pinned image needs; the localstack Python CLI is deprecated in favor of lstk 37 . On the book's shared machine the container is l1-localstack on host port 31566; on your own machine, localstack-main on 4566 is the usual choice.

Starting the pinned LocalStack imageShell

docker run -d --name l1-localstack -p 127.0.0.1:31566:4566 \
  -e MAIN_CONTAINER_NAME=l1-localstack \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock localstack/localstack:4.13.1
until curl -fs localhost:31566/_localstack/health >/dev/null; do sleep 2; done
docker logs l1-localstack 2>&1 | grep -E 'Community|March 2026|version:|Ready'
curl -s localhost:31566/_localstack/health | jq -c '{edition, version}'

Output

56087dd956c2803c6dc5a3d14c25d6b13790f70b031ebbffc43101d3e93f5fa5
  You are starting the LocalStack Community Docker image.
  We move towards a unified LocalStack for AWS image in March 2026.
LocalStack version: 4.13.1
Ready.
{"edition":"community","version":"4.13.1"}

How the AWS CLI 24 , LocalStack and Lambda 24 containers connect on one Docker 514 host

Each option has a reason. Publishing on 127.0.0.1 keeps an unauthenticated AWS 24 emulator off your network. The Docker socket lets LocalStack start Lambda functions as sibling containers, and MAIN_CONTAINER_NAME must match --name so they can call back to it (the default is localstack-main). The state lives in memory: stop the container and every stack is gone, which is a feature for a book (Resetting LocalStack). The image also declares a volume at /var/lib/localstack, so each docker run leaves an anonymous volume behind; remove the container with docker rm -f -v l1-localstack to delete it too.

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