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SAM cannot build Docker images - bundled docker-py API version too old #8466
Description
SAM Version: 1.144.0
Installation: Official AWS installer (/usr/local/aws-sam-cli/)
OS: Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)
Docker Version: Modern (API 1.44+)
Issue
SAM fails to build Lambda container images with error:
Error: Building image for generateRecruiticsFlags requires Docker. is
Docker running?
Debug output shows:
docker.errors.APIError: 400 Client Error: client version 1.35 is too
old.
Minimum supported API version is 1.44, please upgrade your client to a
newer version
Root Cause
SAM 1.144.0 bundles docker-py that only supports Docker API 1.35 (from
~2018). Modern Docker daemons require API 1.44+.
Expected Behavior
SAM should bundle a modern docker-py version compatible with current
Docker releases.
Workaround
Manually build/push Docker image to ECR, bypass SAM's build step. Or downgrade Docker to 2018 version (unsafe to do this in practice)
Request
Please update the bundled docker-py library to support Docker API
1.44+.
Activity
valerena commentedon Dec 1, 2025
Hi. Support for newer Docker versions was added in SAM CLI 1.147.1.
We recommend to update to the latest version SAM CLI 1.149.0. You can find the installer directly there on the release page on GitHub, or in the public AWS documentation to install the latest version: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/serverless-application-model/latest/developerguide/install-sam-cli.html
github-actions commentedon Dec 1, 2025
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