Open Container Initiative

Open Container Initiative

The Open Container Initiative (OCI) is the open governance body that defines industry standards for container images and runtimes. We adopt OCI-compatible artifacts and runtimes for any workload that ships as a container. Kubernetes ecosystems assume OCI images; portable packaging is effectively required for cloud-native delivery.

Blurb

The Open Container Initiative is an open governance structure for the express purpose of creating open industry standards around container formats and runtimes.

Summary

What it is: a Platform standards layer under the Linux Foundation, not a single vendor product. Core specs include the Image Spec (how layers and manifests are packaged), the Runtime Spec (how a bundle executes on a host), and distribution-related guidance for registries.

Why adopt: one build artifact runs on a laptop, in CI, and in production across Docker, Podman, containerd, CRI-O, and Kubernetes runtimes. Containerization as a Technique depends on this shared format.

How we use it: produce OCI images in CI, scan and test them (Container Structure Test), promote by digest, and avoid proprietary-only image formats. Prefer OCI-compatible local engines over commercial desktop bundles tied to one vendor.

Not the same as: the Docker Inc product stack (hold for new org-wide Desktop adoption). OCI is the standard; Docker popularized tooling around it.

Details

Garden Tooling Stance