skopeo(1)

Skopeo is a command-line utility that works with remote image repositories and local container storage. It can inspect image metadata, copy images between registries, delete images, and sign containers without requiring a full container daemon.

Unlike Docker or Podman, skopeo operates directly on container images in registries (Docker Hub, Quay, private registries) or local storage, making it lightweight for CI/CD pipelines and automated image management tasks.

Display metadata and layers of the nginx:latest image from Docker Hub without pulling it

skopeo inspect docker://nginx:latest

Get raw manifest and extract the config digest using JSON processing

skopeo inspect --raw docker://ghcr.io/owner/image:v1.0 | jq '.config.digest'

Copy Ubuntu 20.04 image from Docker Hub to local OCI-format storage

skopeo copy docker://ubuntu:20.04 oci:/tmp/ubuntu-image

Copy image from private registry to Docker Hub with authentication

skopeo copy --src-username user --src-password pass docker://private.registry/myimage:v1 docker://docker.io/myrepo/myimage:v1

Delete a specific image tag from a registry

skopeo delete docker://myregistry.com/image:old-tag

List available tags for the Python image on Docker Hub

skopeo list-tags docker://python | head -20

Copy Alpine image to local Docker daemon storage with all metadata

skopeo copy --all docker://alpine:latest docker-daemon:myimage:latest

Inspect configuration and extract environment variables from the image

skopeo inspect docker://nginx --config | jq '.Env'