# podman-container-tools/podman

Podman: A tool for managing OCI containers and pods.

Repository: https://github.com/podman-container-tools/podman
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/podman
Homepage: https://podman.io
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: containers, docker, kubernetes, linux, oci
Last push: 2026-08-26T23:47:31+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": 3227, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 20, "gap_med": 21, "n_releases_24m": 28}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 32704, forks 3351 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:57.822239+00:00)

## What it is
Podman is an open-source, daemonless tool for managing OCI containers, images, volumes, and pods, built on the libpod library. It runs natively on Linux and on Mac and Windows via a managed virtual machine, and is Docker-compatible including Kubernetes YAML generation.

## Use cases
- run containers without docker daemon
- rootless container management on linux
- docker alternative for mac and windows
- generate kubernetes yaml from local containers
- build and push container images from a containerfile
- run local kubernetes pods without a cluster
- manage container pods from the command line

## When to choose
- you want a daemonless, rootless, Docker-compatible container engine
- you need to develop containers locally and deploy to Kubernetes
- you want to run containers on Linux without root privileges
- you need a free, open-source container tool with active upstream support

## When to avoid
- you rely on Docker-specific tooling or Docker Swarm features
- you need a mature GUI-first container experience (though Podman Desktop exists)
- your workflow depends on Docker Compose semantics without compatibility layers

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: container-runtime, cli, developer-tools, deployment
- domain: cloud-computing, developer-tools, self-hosted
- platform: windows, cli, cross-platform
- tags: oci-containers, docker-compatible, rootless-containers, pods, kubernetes-ready, daemonless, libpod, containers, devops, linux, macos

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

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:57.822239+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 2026-08-29T16:51:54.855982+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/podman-container-tools/podman (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:57.822239+00:00, sha f5793739f1be)
  - homepage: https://podman.io (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:52.488271+00:00, sha 88db4fea6552)
  - site_page: https://podman.io/features (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:52.491543+00:00, sha ea5bd697c10a)
  - site_page: https://podman.io/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:52.493858+00:00, sha 587abd984af8)
  - site_page: https://podman.io/docs/installation (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:52.496254+00:00, sha 2529399f024b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.