[Request]: Support the BUILDKIT_COLORS environment variable for customizing console output.

[spkane]

Feature or enhancement request details

The default color scheme for buildkit/buildctl is awful for dark backgrounds and buildkit has support for modifying colors (as I wrote it), but locally set environment variables do not seem to be passed all the way through with container, or it is using a very old version of buildkit/buildctl.

It would be VERY useful to be able to set these as usual using something like:

export BUILDKIT_COLORS=run=green:warning=yellow:error=red:cancel=cyan and export NOCOLOR.

See:

• https://github.com/moby/buildkit?tab=readme-ov-file#color-output-controls
• https://github.com/moby/buildkit/blame/master/util/progress/progressui/colors.go

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[karenheckel]

@spkane Hello! @sarasando and I are students from UT Austin and looking to complete one more issue for our Virtualization class. Would we be able to close this one?

[spkane]

If you can add the support I am certainly fine with you all submitting a PR for review by the maintainers.

…

On Thu, Dec 4, 2025 at 16:21 karenheckel ***@***.***> wrote: *karenheckel* left a comment (apple/container#915) <#915 (comment)> @spkane <https://github.com/spkane> Hello! @sarasando <https://github.com/sarasando> and I are students from UT Austin and looking to complete one more issue for our Virtualization class. Would we be able to close this one? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#915 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAA7UXIULREOCUOTO2UK2ZL4ADFW7AVCNFSM6AAAAACNEOE2J6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZTMMJUHAZTAMBWHE> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[jglogan]

@karenheckel Assigned! Do you have a sense for how to go about this one?

[karenheckel]

@jplogan We're thinking of modifying BuilderStart.swift so that the BuildKit container inherits the user's color environment variables from the host (BUILDKIT_COLORS, NO_COLOR, NOCOLOR). The values will get read and merged into the environment array passed to ProcessConfiguration when the builder container is created.

For changes to active builders, we're thinking of stopping them and recreating them so the new settings apply. How does that sound?