jesseduffield/lazydocker · error

container is not running

Error message

container is not running

What it means

Thrown by Container.Top() after a successful Inspect() reveals detail.State.Running == false. The Docker API's ContainerTop endpoint (which this function calls next) only works on running containers, so lazydocker pre-checks the state and returns this error instead of a raw API 409/500 error from the daemon.

Source

Thrown at pkg/commands/container.go:120

		return nil, errors.New(c.Tr.CannotAttachStoppedContainerError)
	}

	c.Log.Warn(fmt.Sprintf("attaching to container %s", c.Name))
	// TODO: use SDK
	cmd := c.OSCommand.NewCmd("docker", "attach", "--sig-proxy=false", c.ID)
	return cmd, nil
}

// Top returns process information
func (c *Container) Top(ctx context.Context) (container.TopResponse, error) {
	detail, err := c.Inspect()
	if err != nil {
		return container.TopResponse{}, err
	}

	// check container status
	if !detail.State.Running {
		return container.TopResponse{}, errors.New("container is not running")
	}

	return c.Client.ContainerTop(ctx, c.ID, []string{})
}

// PruneContainers prunes containers
func (c *DockerCommand) PruneContainers() error {
	_, err := c.Client.ContainersPrune(context.Background(), filters.Args{})
	return err
}

// Inspect returns details about the container
func (c *Container) Inspect() (container.InspectResponse, error) {
	return c.Client.ContainerInspect(context.Background(), c.ID)
}

// RenderTop returns details about the container
func (c *Container) RenderTop(ctx context.Context) (string, error) {

View on GitHub (pinned to 7e7aadc207)

Solutions

1. Start the container ('r' key or `docker start <id>`) and retry Top once State.Running is true.
2. Guard the call: check the container's State via Inspect or the cached state string before invoking Top.
3. If the container should not keep exiting, inspect `docker logs` for the root crash cause.

Example fix

// before
 top, err := container.Top(ctx)
if err != nil {
    return err
}

// after
 detail, err := container.Inspect()
if err != nil {
    return err
}
if !detail.State.Running {
    return fmt.Errorf("container %s is not running", container.Name)
}
top, err := container.Top(ctx)

detail, err := container.Inspect()
if err != nil {
    return err
}
if !detail.State.Running {
    return nil // skip stats/top view for non-running containers
}

top, err := container.Top(ctx)
if err != nil && err.Error() == "container is not running" {
    // render an empty stats view instead of an error popup
    return renderEmptyStats(container)
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling Container.Top(ctx) on a container whose inspected State.Running is false — stopped, exited, paused-and-stopped, or created-but-never-started containers. Also hit when the container stops between the UI listing it and the user opening the top/stats tab.

Common situations: Opening the process/stats view on a stopped container that is still visible in the side list; a container that exits while the user is navigating to its stats tab; scripting against lazydocker's Container.Top without checking lifecycle state first.

Related errors

• You cannot attach to a stopped container, you need to start
• Cannot proceed until docker gives us more information about
• Container does not support attaching. You must either run th
• {stderr}
• {joined stderr}

AI-assisted analysis of jesseduffield/lazydocker@7e7aadc207 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/f131fd01abb77386. Report an issue: GitHub.