Bug: Error: Running AWS SAM projects locally requires a container runtime. Do you have Docker or Finch installed and running? #8430

Description:

SAM local start-api fails with container runtime error despite attempting to use Docker. The command exits with "Running AWS SAM projects locally requires a container runtime. Do you have Docker or Finch installed and running?"

Steps to reproduce:

1. Navigate to SAM application directory (/sam-app)
2. Run command: sam local start-api --port 8181 --docker-network sam-dynamodb --env-vars /test_environment_dynamodb.json --debug

Observed result:

2025-11-13 03:15:46,744 | DockerContainerClient created successfully
2025-11-13 03:15:46,748 | Container daemon availability check failed: 400 Client Error for http+docker://localhost/v1.35/_ping: Bad Request ("client version 1.35 is too old. Minimum supported API version is 1.44, please upgrade your client to a newer version")
2025-11-13 03:15:46,749 | Docker client not created, trying creating Finch client.
2025-11-13 03:15:46,752 | Container daemon availability check failed: ('Connection aborted.', FileNotFoundError(2, 'No such file or directory'))
2025-11-13 03:15:46,752 | No container runtime available
Error: Running AWS SAM projects locally requires a container runtime. Do you have Docker or Finch installed and running?

Looks like it was introduced here:

Expected result:

SAM local API should start successfully on port 8181 with the specified Docker network and environment variables, allowing local testing of the serverless application.

Additional environment details

1. OS: Linux Ubuntu
2. sam --version: 1.146.0
3. Container engine: Docker

Output sam --info

{
  "version": "1.146.0",
  "system": {
    "python": "3.11.10",
    "os": "Linux-6.14.0-1015-aws-x86_64-with-glibc2.39"
  },
  "additional_dependencies": {
    "container_engine": "Not available",
    "aws_cdk": "2.1031.2 (build 779352d)",
    "terraform": "1.13.5"
  },
  "available_beta_feature_env_vars": [
    "SAM_CLI_BETA_FEATURES",
    "SAM_CLI_BETA_BUILD_PERFORMANCE",
    "SAM_CLI_BETA_TERRAFORM_SUPPORT",
    "SAM_CLI_BETA_PACKAGE_PERFORMANCE",
    "SAM_CLI_BETA_RUST_CARGO_LAMBDA"
  ]
}

Output docker version

Client: Docker Engine - Community
 Version:           29.0.0
 API version:       1.52
 Go version:        go1.25.4
 Git commit:        3d4129b
 Built:             Mon Nov 10 21:46:31 2025
 OS/Arch:           linux/amd64
 Context:           default

Server: Docker Engine - Community
 Engine:
  Version:          29.0.0
  API version:      1.52 (minimum version 1.44)
  Go version:       go1.25.4
  Git commit:       d105562
  Built:            Mon Nov 10 21:46:31 2025
  OS/Arch:          linux/amd64
  Experimental:     false
 containerd:
  Version:          v2.1.5
  GitCommit:        fcd43222d6b07379a4be9786bda52438f0dd16a1
 runc:
  Version:          1.3.3
  GitCommit:        v1.3.3-0-gd842d771
 docker-init:
  Version:          0.19.0
  GitCommit:        de40ad0

Important to share, if I downgrade to sam version to 1.145.1, I don't face this issue.