---
title: Explore the Builds view in Docker Desktop
linkTitle: Builds
description: Understand how to use the Builds view in Docker Desktop
keywords: Docker Dashboard, manage, gui, dashboard, builders, builds
weight: 40
---
The **Builds** view provides an interactive interface for inspecting build history, monitoring active builds, and managing builders directly in Docker Desktop.
By default, the **Build history** tab displays a list of completed builds, sorted by date (newest first). Switch to the **Active builds** tab to view ongoing builds.
If you're connected to a cloud builder through [Docker Build Cloud](../../build-cloud/_index.md),
the Builds view also lists any active or completed cloud builds by other team members
connected to the same cloud builder.
> [!NOTE]
>
> When building Windows container images using the `docker build` command, the legacy builder is used which does not populate the **Builds** view. To switch to using BuildKit, you can either:
> - Set `DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1` in the build command, such as `DOCKER_BUILDKIT=1 docker build .` or
> - Use the `docker buildx build` command
## Show build list
Open the **Builds** view from the Docker Dashboard to access:
- **Build history**: Completed builds with access to logs, dependencies, traces, and more
- **Active builds**: Builds currently in progress
Only builds from active, running builders are listed. Builds from removed or stopped builders are not shown.
### Builder settings
The top-right corner shows the name of your currently selected builder, and the
**Builder settings** button lets you [manage builders](#manage-builders) in the
Docker Desktop settings.
### Import builds
{{< summary-bar feature_name="Import builds" >}}
The **Import builds** button lets you import build records for builds by other
people, or builds in a CI environment. When you've imported a build record, it
gives you full access to the logs, traces, and other data for that build,
directly in Docker Desktop.
The [build summary](/manuals/build/ci/github-actions/build-summary.md)
for the `docker/build-push-action` and `docker/bake-action` GitHub Actions
includes a link to download the build records, for inspecting CI jobs with
Docker Desktop.
## Inspect builds
To inspect a build, select the build that you want to view in the list.
The inspection view contains a number of tabs.
The **Info** tab displays details about the build.
If you're inspecting a multi-platform build, the drop-down menu in the
top-right of this tab lets you filter the information down to a specific
platform:
The **Source details** section shows information about the frontend
[frontend](/manuals/build/buildkit/frontend.md) and, if available,
the source code repository used for the build.
### Build timing
The **Build timing** section of the Info tab contains charts
showing a breakdown of the build execution from various angles.
- **Real time** refers to the wall-clock time that it took to complete the build.
- **Accumulated time** shows the total CPU time for all steps.
- **Cache usage** shows the extent to which build operations were cached.
- **Parallel execution** shows how much of the build execution time was spent running steps in parallel.
The chart colors and legend keys describe the different build operations. Build
operations are defined as follows:
| Build operation | Description |
| :------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Local file transfers | Time spent transferring local files from the client to the builder. |
| File operations | Any operations that involve creating and copying files in the build. For example, the `COPY`, `WORKDIR`, `ADD` instructions in a Dockerfile frontend all incur file operations. |