apko Overview

apko is a command-line tool that allows users to build container images using a declarative language based on YAML.

apko is so named as it uses the APK package format and is inspired by the ko build tool.

The following image contains an overview of the apko ecosystem and how it interacts with melange for building apk-based images, using either Alpine or Wolfi as base system.

apko and melange are part of the open source toolkit developed by Chainguard to build Wolfi and Chainguard Images.

apko Features

• Fully reproducible by default. Run apko twice and you will get exactly the same binary.
• Fast. apko aims to build images in ms.
• Small. apko generated images only contain what’s needed by the application, in the style of distroless.
• SBOM Support. apko produces a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) for images, detailing all the packages inside.
• Services. apko supports using the s6 supervision suite to run multiple processes in a container without reaping or signalling issues.