# podman-container-tools/buildah

A tool that facilitates building OCI images.

Repository: https://github.com/podman-container-tools/buildah
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/buildah
Homepage: https://buildah.io
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: container-image, container, docker, oci, containers, oci-image, podman
Last push: 2026-08-26T23:48:47+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 98/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 95, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3506, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 34, "gap_med": 6.0, "n_releases_24m": 59}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 8995, forks 926 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:26.704294+00:00)

## What it is
Buildah is a command-line tool for building OCI and Docker container images, either from Dockerfiles/Containerfiles or programmatically via shell scripts and its Go API. It runs daemonless and can build images without root privileges, complementing Podman which handles running and managing containers.

## Use cases
- build OCI container images from a Dockerfile
- build container images without Docker daemon
- build images without root privileges
- script custom image builds without a Dockerfile
- mount and modify a container root filesystem then commit it as an image
- integrate image building into CI pipelines

## When to choose
- you want daemonless, rootless container image builds on Linux
- you use Podman and need a matching image build tool
- you need fine-grained, scriptable control over image layers beyond Dockerfile syntax
- you want to build both OCI and traditional Docker image formats

## When to avoid
- you need a cross-platform tool with native macOS or Windows support
- you just want to run containers rather than build images (use Podman or Docker)
- your workflow depends on Docker-specific build features like BuildKit
- you need a GUI for container management

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: container-runtime, developer-tools, cli, build-tool, deployment
- domain: cloud-computing, developer-tools
- platform: cli, go
- tags: oci-images, dockerfile, daemonless, rootless, podman, container-builds, containers, devops, linux

## Member repositories
- podman-container-tools/buildah (main) score 98

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:26.704294+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:24:22.376332+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/podman-container-tools/buildah (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:26.704294+00:00, sha ace666393e26)
  - homepage: https://buildah.io (fetched 2026-08-29T08:24:28.536840+00:00, sha 38f18e7a92a9)
  - site_page: https://buildah.io/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T08:24:28.539843+00:00, sha 3832a9c8177c)
  - site_page: https://buildah.io/releases/2026/07/30/Buildah-version-v1.45.0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:24:28.547104+00:00, sha 9c0d1800439c)
  - site_page: https://buildah.io/releases/2026/05/27/Buildah-version-v1.44.0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:24:28.549093+00:00, sha c787280dfbcf)
  - site_page: https://buildah.io/releases/2026/02/06/Buildah-version-v1.43.0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:24:28.551047+00:00, sha 3e1916fdc70d)
  - site_page: https://buildah.io/releases/2025/10/22/Buildah-version-v1.42.0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:24:28.552662+00:00, sha fce51c4616b3)
  - site_page: https://buildah.io/releases/2025/07/21/Buildah-version-v1.41.0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:24:28.554333+00:00, sha 5e81dfbe8d57)
  - site_page: https://buildah.io/releases/2025/04/21/Buildah-version-v1.40.0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:24:28.556199+00:00, sha c11220767a2b)
  - site_page: https://buildah.io/releases/2025/02/03/Buildah-version-v1.39.0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:24:28.557772+00:00, sha b8af1926b818)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.