In progressdocker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemonThis message means the CLI couldn't reach a daemon at all via the socket it tried — it's distinct from a 'permission denied' error on the same socket, which means it reached the socket but was refused access.
View the whole map (7 more steps)
Is the daemon process actually running?
Fix: start the daemon
Is DOCKER_HOST pointing somewhere unexpected?
Fix: unset DOCKER_HOST
Is the active Docker context pointing at a stale endpoint?
Fix: switch back to the default context
Socket and context are both fine — check permissions instead
What to test
docker: Cannot connect to the Docker daemon
This message means the CLI couldn't reach a daemon at all via the socket it tried — it's distinct from a 'permission denied' error on the same socket, which means it reached the socket but was refused access.