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chainctl images discover

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chainctl images discover

Find Chainguard replacements for the images your project uses.

Synopsis

Find Chainguard replacements for the images your project uses.

Reads every image reference under DIR (default: the current directory). For each upstream image, it reports whether Chainguard publishes a hardened replacement and whether your organization can pull it today.

Resolve references directly with repeatable –image flags. This skips the directory scan.

Private-registry references are supported. An exact catalog alias is preferred. Otherwise, repository suffixes are tried from most to least specific. Thus registry.example/cache/dotnet/sdk retains dotnet/sdk, while a reference ending in nginx can still suggest Chainguard’s nginx. Namesake matching identifies a catalog offering, not identical image contents. Both what you build and what you run are covered: Dockerfile FROM instructions, Kubernetes manifests, Compose files, Helm values, Terraform, shell scripts and Makefiles.

Helm values are read as written, not rendered. An image assembled from registry, repository, tag and digest keys is resolved. This includes a chart-wide imageRegistry or imageNamespace and an empty tag standing for the chart’s appVersion. A reference computed inside templates is beyond what reading values can see, so treat the result as what values declare.

Your immutability choice stays as written: a digest-pinned reference comes back digest-pinned. A maintained tag is kept. A variant or older patch resolves to the same version without the source-image variant suffix when possible. An untagged reference is made explicit as latest, which is what Docker already uses. When a requested version is not maintained, the suggestion uses the newest concrete stable version on the same minor line, then the newest in the same major, never an older line than the one you asked for. Symbolic latest is the fallback when that major is not maintained. The resolved tag is part of the suggested image reference. An image not yet entitled is named with a tag because its digest cannot be resolved until it is in your catalog.

Up to three candidates are shown for each reference. Pass one image reference to –all-candidates to show every matching variant and all of its maintained tags. FIPS variants rank first by default; pass –fips=false to rank standard variants first instead. Both variants remain visible when Chainguard publishes them.

Every reference is listed with what you can do: pull the replacement today, ask for entitlement, nothing (already on Chainguard), or nothing to move to. What has no replacement is as much of the answer as what does.

chainctl images discover [DIR]

Examples

chainctl images discover
chainctl images discover ./services
chainctl images discover --parent my-org
chainctl images discover --image nginx:1.29
chainctl images discover --all-candidates nginx:1.29
chainctl images discover --image nginx:1.29 --fips=false
chainctl images discover -o json

Options

      --all-candidates string   Show every variant and maintained tag for one image reference.
      --fips                    Prefer FIPS variants when both FIPS and standard images are available. (default true)
      --image stringArray       Resolve an image reference directly instead of scanning a directory; may be repeated.
      --parent string           Name or UIDP of the organization whose entitlements to check. Defaults to the default.group config value (env: CHAINGUARD_DEFAULT_GROUP).

Options inherited from parent commands

      --api string         The url of the Chainguard platform API. (default "https://console-api.enforce.dev")
      --audience string    The Chainguard token audience to request. (default "https://console-api.enforce.dev")
      --config string      A specific chainctl config file. Uses CHAINCTL_CONFIG environment variable if a file is not passed explicitly.
      --console string     The url of the Chainguard platform Console. (default "https://console.chainguard.dev")
      --force-color        Force color output even when stdout is not a TTY.
  -h, --help               Help for chainctl
      --issuer string      The url of the Chainguard STS endpoint. (default "https://issuer.enforce.dev")
      --log-level string   Set the log level (debug, info) (default "ERROR")
  -o, --output string      Output format. One of: [csv, env, go-template, id, json, markdown, none, table, terse, tree, wide]
  -v, --v int              Set the log verbosity level.

SEE ALSO

Last updated: 2026-09-21 22:21