diff --git a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/podman.nix b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/podman.nix
index e879b5ad8f9f..edf4bbe079a3 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/podman.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/podman.nix
@@ -46,6 +46,20 @@ in
         '';
       };
 
+    dockerSocket.enable = mkOption {
+      type = types.bool;
+      default = false;
+      description = ''
+        Make the Podman socket available in place of the Docker socket, so
+        Docker tools can find the Podman socket.
+
+        Podman implements the Docker API.
+
+        Users must be in the <code>podman</code> group in order to connect. As
+        with Docker, members of this group can gain root access.
+      '';
+    };
+
     dockerCompat = mkOption {
       type = types.bool;
       default = false;
@@ -123,6 +137,11 @@ in
             >$out/lib/tmpfiles.d/podman.conf
         '') ];
 
+      systemd.tmpfiles.rules =
+        lib.optionals cfg.dockerSocket.enable [
+          "L! /run/docker.sock - - - - /run/podman/podman.sock"
+        ];
+
       users.groups.podman = {};
 
       assertions = [
@@ -130,6 +149,12 @@ in
           assertion = cfg.dockerCompat -> !config.virtualisation.docker.enable;
           message = "Option dockerCompat conflicts with docker";
         }
+        {
+          assertion = cfg.dockerSocket.enable -> !config.virtualisation.docker.enable;
+          message = ''
+            The options virtualisation.podman.dockerSocket.enable and virtualisation.docker.enable conflict, because only one can serve the socket.
+          '';
+        }
       ];
     }
   ]);
diff --git a/nixos/tests/podman.nix b/nixos/tests/podman.nix
index 6078a936edea..343ecbe14b2d 100644
--- a/nixos/tests/podman.nix
+++ b/nixos/tests/podman.nix
@@ -13,10 +13,23 @@ import ./make-test-python.nix (
         {
           virtualisation.podman.enable = true;
 
+          # To test docker socket support
+          virtualisation.podman.dockerSocket.enable = true;
+          environment.systemPackages = [
+            pkgs.docker-client
+          ];
+
           users.users.alice = {
             isNormalUser = true;
             home = "/home/alice";
             description = "Alice Foobar";
+            extraGroups = [ "podman" ];
+          };
+
+          users.users.mallory = {
+            isNormalUser = true;
+            home = "/home/mallory";
+            description = "Mallory Foobar";
           };
 
         };
@@ -26,9 +39,9 @@ import ./make-test-python.nix (
       import shlex
 
 
-      def su_cmd(cmd):
+      def su_cmd(cmd, user = "alice"):
           cmd = shlex.quote(cmd)
-          return f"su alice -l -c {cmd}"
+          return f"su {user} -l -c {cmd}"
 
 
       podman.wait_for_unit("sockets.target")
@@ -105,6 +118,26 @@ import ./make-test-python.nix (
           assert pid == "1"
           pid = podman.succeed("podman run --rm --init busybox readlink /proc/self").strip()
           assert pid == "2"
+
+      with subtest("A podman member can use the docker cli"):
+          podman.succeed(su_cmd("docker version"))
+
+      with subtest("Run container via docker cli"):
+          podman.succeed("docker network create default")
+          podman.succeed("tar cv --files-from /dev/null | podman import - scratchimg")
+          podman.succeed(
+            "docker run -d --name=sleeping -v /nix/store:/nix/store -v /run/current-system/sw/bin:/bin scratchimg /bin/sleep 10"
+          )
+          podman.succeed("docker ps | grep sleeping")
+          podman.succeed("podman ps | grep sleeping")
+          podman.succeed("docker stop sleeping")
+          podman.succeed("docker rm sleeping")
+
+      with subtest("A podman non-member can not use the docker cli"):
+          podman.fail(su_cmd("docker version", user="mallory"))
+
+      # TODO: add docker-compose test
+
     '';
   }
 )