# Self-serve overview

URL: https://edu.chainguard.dev/chainguard/self-serve/overview.md
Last Modified: May 12, 2026

Signing yourself up for Chainguard products

Self-Serve is a general term to capture all forms of users being able to Chainguard products (images etc.) on their own without any direct help or involvement of Chainguard employees.
Catalog Starter refers to a specific plan that enables users to self-serve up to 5 images for free.
The Catalog Starter plan has the following restrictions:
You must be authenticated with a business email address using one of the following:
Email and password Google (only if your business uses a Google Workspace account) Other limitations include:
Only a maximum of 5 Chainguard Images can be used Only images from the following tiers are available: AI APPLICATION BASE No access to nested UIDP image repos, such as Helm charts Sign up with chainctl The current method for signing up is with chainctl.
To begin, sign up with a brand new account (identity) using the following interactive command:
chainctl starter initThis will require selection of a valid authentication option:
Choose an identity provider to login to Chainguard > Email and password GoogleUse the arrow keys and click ‘Enter’ to select either, which will launch a browser window to the Chainguard console to complete sign-up.
Add images You can see which images are available using the Chainguard Directory, but remember the images available are limited to the tiers mentioned above.
To add one or more images, run the following command, substituting the desired image names for the variables:
chainctl starter add-images $IMAGE1 [$IMAGE2]After the Chainguard system has processed your request, the image(s) will be accessible. This can take up to a few hours. When available, you will be able to pull the images like this, replacing $ORGANIZATION with your organization’s name and $IMAGE with the desired image’s name.
docker pull cgr.dev/$ORGANIZATION/$IMAGE:latest Find status To show the status of your catalog starter organization, including the registry path, account provisioning status, image quota usage, and per-image readiness, use:
chainctl starter status Add additional users To request access for additional users for your organization, use:
chainctl starter request-access