docker-credential-desktop not installed or not available in PATH

Fix Error: docker-credential-desktop not installed or not available in PATH (docker-compose)

TL;DR

Your ~/.docker/config.json points at the docker-credential-desktop helper, which is not installed on this machine. Delete the "credsStore": "desktop" line from the config and compose stops looking for the helper. Re-login with docker login if you need registry auth.

The error, verbatim:

Error: docker-credential-desktop not installed or not available in PATH

Steps

1. Open your docker config and look for the credsStore line:

   cat ~/.docker/config.json

Success check: You see a line like "credsStore": "desktop" in the file.

1. Remove the credsStore line (or the whole "credsStore": "desktop", entry):

   python3 -c "import json; json.load(open('[HOME]/...'.replace('[HOME]/...', __import__('os').path.expanduser('~'))))"

Success check: The file is still valid JSON (no trailing commas).

1. Retry the compose command that was failing:

   docker compose pull

Success check: compose commands run without the credential error.

When to use

You hit this exact error while using docker-compose. The trigger list below matches your situation.

When NOT to use

If the error text differs, or the failure is in a different tool (e.g. a Docker daemon error when you only need the compose fix), find the skill for that exact error instead.

Tool compatibility

Docker Desktop / docker-compose on Linux, macOS, Windows. Any recent compose version.

Variant phrasings

docker-credential-desktop not installed or not available in PATH

Error: docker-credential-desktop not installed

Root cause

~/.docker/config.json contains "credsStore": "desktop", which tells compose to shell out to the docker-credential-desktop helper for registry auth. That helper only ships with Docker Desktop; on a plain Linux install (or a copied config) it does not exist, so every compose command that touches the registry fails.

Edge cases

• If you actually want a credential helper on Linux, install pass (gnupg2 + pass) and keep credsStore, instead of deleting it.
• Docker Desktop for Mac/Windows ships docker-credential-desktop; this only bites when the config is copied to a machine without it.
• After editing, docker login will rewrite the auths section; that is expected.

Where this came from

Resolved from the public discussion at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67642620 (so:67642620).