# distribution/distribution

The toolkit to pack, ship, store, and deliver container content

Repository: https://github.com/distribution/distribution
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/distribution
Homepage: https://distribution.github.io/distribution
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: registry, oci-specification, cncf, oci, containers, distribution
Last push: 2026-08-26T22:12:07+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 82/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 49, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4272, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 124, "gap_med": 196.0, "n_releases_24m": 3}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 10583, forks 2776 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:42.470487+00:00)

## What it is
The CNCF Distribution project provides the open-source Registry, a stateless, scalable server-side application implementing the OCI Distribution Specification for storing and delivering container images and other OCI content. It also ships Go libraries for interacting with registry components and serves as the core for Docker Hub, GitHub Container Registry, GitLab, and Harbor.

## Use cases
- run a private docker registry on my own server
- self-host container image storage
- store and distribute OCI images behind my firewall
- build a large-scale container registry service
- push and pull images to localhost:5000 for local development
- own my full image distribution pipeline

## When to choose
- you want full control and ownership over where images are stored
- you need to integrate image storage tightly into an in-house CI/CD workflow
- you want a simple, secure, scalable base for a private or large-scale registry
- you need an OCI-conformant registry implementation

## When to avoid
- you want a zero-maintenance hosted solution with support and security scanning (Docker Hub, Quay.io, GitHub Packages, cloud provider registries)
- you need built-in UI, vulnerability scanning, or RBAC out of the box (consider Harbor instead)

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: stable
- function: container-runtime, http-server, api-framework, self-hosted, developer-tools
- domain: cloud-computing, self-hosted, infrastructure-as-code
- platform: go, self-hosted, cross-platform
- tags: container-registry, oci-distribution-spec, image-storage, docker-registry, cncf, containers, devops, linux, docker

## Member repositories
- distribution/distribution (main) score 82

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:42.470487+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 2026-08-29T17:18:30.451012+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/distribution/distribution (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:42.470487+00:00, sha 0dcfa54442f7)
  - homepage: https://distribution.github.io/distribution (fetched 2026-08-29T08:17:36.448390+00:00, sha e59cc4fc3865)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.