# containerd/containerd

An open and reliable container runtime

Repository: https://github.com/containerd/containerd
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/containerd
Homepage: https://containerd.io
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: containerd, oci, containers, docker, cncf, cri, kubernetes, hacktoberfest
Last push: 2026-08-26T23:24:59+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 98/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 97, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3947, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 21, "gap_med": 0.5, "n_releases_24m": 57}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 21187, forks 4079 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:31.429210+00:00)

## What it is
containerd is an industry-standard container runtime daemon that manages the complete container lifecycle of a host system, including image transfer and storage, container execution and supervision, and low-level storage and networking. It is a CNCF graduated project designed to be embedded into larger systems such as Kubernetes rather than used directly by end users.

## Use cases
- run containers on a linux or windows host without docker
- use a container runtime with kubernetes via cri
- manage container image pull, push, and storage
- embed container lifecycle management into a platform
- run rootless containers
- replace dockershim in a kubernetes cluster

## When to choose
- you need a lightweight, production-grade container runtime for kubernetes or another orchestrator
- you are building a platform that needs to embed container lifecycle management
- you want OCI-compliant image and runtime spec support

## When to avoid
- you want a developer-friendly CLI with image building - use Docker or similar instead
- you need a tool for running containers on a laptop for local development
- you need orchestration features like scheduling - use Kubernetes on top of containerd

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: stable
- function: container-runtime, deployment, developer-tools
- domain: cloud-computing, infrastructure-as-code
- platform: windows, go, self-hosted
- tags: oci, cri, cncf, containerd, runc, daemon, kubernetes-runtime, containers, devops, linux, docker, kubernetes

## Member repositories
- containerd/containerd (main) score 98

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:31.429210+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 2026-08-29T16:58:28.343132+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/containerd/containerd (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:31.429210+00:00, sha 5c2bdd3d91d8)
  - homepage: https://containerd.io (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:14.878857+00:00, sha 69b5c5503c4b)
  - site_page: https://containerd.io/docs/2.3 (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:14.888584+00:00, sha 173e868c8a54)
  - site_page: https://containerd.io/docs/2.2 (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:14.891320+00:00, sha 336a5f40a8e6)
  - site_page: https://containerd.io/docs/2.1 (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:14.893496+00:00, sha 1779e2bd4338)
  - site_page: https://containerd.io/docs/1.7 (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:14.895374+00:00, sha e1cbd4ed3093)
  - site_page: https://containerd.io/docs/main (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:14.897379+00:00, sha 8078c32986f0)
  - site_page: https://containerd.io/docs/2.3/getting-started (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:14.901808+00:00, sha 192f6d6560df)
  - site_page: https://containerd.io/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T07:57:14.899242+00:00, sha 4396785a01ad)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.