# nicholas-fedor/watchtower

Automate Docker container image updates

Repository: https://github.com/nicholas-fedor/watchtower
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/nicholas-fedor-watchtower
Homepage: http://watchtower.nickfedor.com/
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: community-project, docker, go, golang
Last push: 2026-08-26T19:20:13+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 88/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 99, longevity 42
- inputs: {"age_days": 594, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 8, "gap_med": 7, "n_releases_24m": 56}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4333, forks 73 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:46.009445+00:00)

## What it is
Watchtower is a Go application that runs as a Docker container and automatically updates running containers when new images are pushed to a registry. It pulls the new image, gracefully stops the old container, and restarts it with the original deployment options.

## Use cases
- automatically update docker containers when new images are released
- keep homelab self-hosted services up to date
- pull latest image and restart container with same options
- schedule container image updates without manual intervention
- update containers from docker hub or private registry

## When to choose
- you run a homelab, media center, or dev environment with many Docker containers
- you want hands-off image updates by just pushing to a registry
- you prefer a simple single-container solution over full CI/CD

## When to avoid
- you run production or commercial workloads - the project explicitly recommends Kubernetes with CI/CD instead
- you need controlled, reviewed deployments rather than automatic updates
- you run an older Docker version below the supported API range

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: deployment, container-runtime, workflow-automation, cli
- domain: self-hosted
- platform: go, self-hosted
- tags: docker-image-updates, container-updates, homelab, watchtower-fork, devops, containers, automation, docker, linux

## Member repositories
- nicholas-fedor/watchtower (main) score 88

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:46.009445+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 2026-08-29T18:21:39.587755+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/nicholas-fedor/watchtower (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:46.009445+00:00, sha 95090cf81b3d)
  - homepage: http://watchtower.nickfedor.com/ (fetched 2026-08-29T09:10:34.867952+00:00, sha 2e5f29593971)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.