1. uninstall docker desktop
2. quit the app, delete /Applications/Docker.app, clean up
   ~/.docker and ~/Library/Group Containers/group.com.docker.
3. install colima. it doesn't come with the docker cli. if everything was uninstalled, just install again with brew while at it:

brew install colima docker docker-compose
brew services start colima

4. as is warned during installation, docker compose fails with unknown command: docker compose. homebrew's docker on apple silicon only checks old linux paths for plugins (like /usr/local/lib/docker/cli-plugins), not /opt/homebrew/lib,

5. point docker at the right folder. add this to ~/.docker/config.json:

{
  "cliPluginsExtraDirs": ["/opt/homebrew/lib/docker/cli-plugins"]
}

6. docker compose is back up