buildpacks-io website screenshot

buildpacks-io

Cloud Native Buildpacks (CNB) is a CNCF Incubating project that transforms application source code into OCI images that can run on any cloud. The v3 specification — Buildpack API 0.12, Platform API 0.15, and Distribution API 0.3 — defines a modular, vendor-neutral contract between buildpacks, builders, lifecycles, and platforms. CNB consolidates a decade of production experience from Heroku and Pivotal/Cloud Foundry and provides the reference lifecycle (buildpacksio/lifecycle), the `pack` CLI, language bindings (libcnb in Go/Rust/.NET), the Kubernetes-native `kpack` platform, the public community registry at registry.buildpacks.io, and an open RFC-driven governance model.

buildpacks-io publishes 2 APIs on the APIs.io network: Buildpacks API and Search API.

The buildpacks-io catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 2 Spectral governance rulesets.

buildpacks-io’s developer surface includes developer portal, documentation, getting-started guide, release notes, engineering blog, tooling, code examples, and 39 more developer resources.

45.2/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 20/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
8 APIs 20 Features

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
Composite quality — 45.2/100 · developing
Contract Quality 18.0 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 10.0 / 20
Commercial Clarity 0.0 / 20
Operational Transparency 3.4 / 13
Governance 8.3 / 12
Discoverability 5.6 / 10
Agent readiness — 20/100 · agent aware
Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8
Request/Response Examples 7 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7
Typed Event Surface 0 / 6
Agent Skills 0 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
A2A Agent Card 0 / 8
Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/buildpacks-io: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 8

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

Buildpack Specification

The Buildpack API (currently 0.12) defines the contract between an individual buildpack and the lifecycle. It specifies the on-disk layout of a buildpack (buildpack.toml, bin/de...

Platform Specification

The Platform API (currently 0.15) defines how platforms (pack, kpack, Tekton Pipelines, GitLab Auto DevOps, CircleCI Orb, Project Piper) orchestrate the lifecycle. Specifies the...

Distribution Specification

The Distribution API (currently 0.3) defines how buildpacks, extensions, and builders are packaged as OCI artifacts and published to OCI registries. Covers labels (io.buildpacks...

Image Extension Specification

Image extensions emit Dockerfile snippets applied by the `extender` lifecycle binary to the build and/or run image. Share the buildpack surface (extension.toml, bin/detect, bin/...

Project Descriptor (project.toml)

The Project Descriptor extension defines project.toml — the optional app-root file letting developers declare their builder image, include/exclude globs, buildpack overrides (pr...

Service Bindings Extension

The Service Bindings extension specifies how external service credentials and configuration are surfaced to detect and build under $CNB_PLATFORM_DIR/bindings/. Aligns with the S...

buildpacks-io Buildpacks API

Retrieve buildpack version metadata

buildpacks-io Search API

Search the buildpack registry by keyword

Scroll for all 8

Open Collections 1

Open, tool-agnostic API collections (OpenAPI-derived and Bruno).

Features 20

Notable capabilities this provider offers.

Buildpack API 0.12 — modular detect/build contract producing OCI layers without Dockerfiles
Platform API 0.15 — lifecycle orchestration surface (analyze, detect, restore, extend, build, export, rebase, launch)
Distribution API 0.3 — OCI-packaged buildpacks, extensions, and builders
Image extensions — Dockerfile snippets applied by the `extender` for base-image customization
Project Descriptor (project.toml) — declarative app-side build configuration
Build plan with provides/requires reconciliation across composite (meta) buildpacks
Per-layer caching with launch/build/cache types in `.toml`
Rebase — swap run image base layers in seconds without rebuilding app layers
Targets (os/arch/distros) replacing the legacy stacks model since Buildpack API 0.12
Per-layer SBOM emission in CycloneDX, SPDX, and Syft formats; aggregated into io.buildpacks.build.metadata
Standard OCI image labels (io.buildpacks.lifecycle.metadata, io.buildpacks.build.metadata, io.buildpacks.project.metadata, io.buildpacks.rebasable)
Reference lifecycle distributed as buildpacksio/lifecycle Docker image
Reference CLI `pack` (v0.40.6, May 2026) implementing the Platform Interface Specification
Public community registry at registry.buildpacks.io with `pack buildpack register/pull/yank`
Language bindings via libcnb (Go), libcnb-rs (Rust), and libcnb.net (.NET)
Kubernetes-native platform via kpack with Image/Builder/Stack CRDs
CI integrations — GitHub Actions, CircleCI Orb, GitLab Auto DevOps, Tekton, Project Piper
Multi-arch builders (linux/amd64, linux/arm64, windows) selected via target reconciliation
Service Bindings extension aligned with the Service Binding Specification for Kubernetes
Vendor-neutral CNCF Incubating project (incubation since 2018-10) with public RFC process

Scroll for all 20

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Buildpacks Io Context

21 classes · 10 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 2

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

buildpacks-io API Rules

5 rules · 3 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

buildpacks-io API Rules

8 rules · 3 errors 4 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 4

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Buildpack Build Plan

3 properties

JSON SCHEMA

buildpack.toml

6 properties

JSON SCHEMA

launch.toml

3 properties

JSON SCHEMA

project.toml (Project Descriptor)

2 properties

JSON SCHEMA

JSON Structure 1

JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.

Buildpacks Io Structure

0 properties

JSON STRUCTURE

Examples 2

Example request and response payloads for these APIs.

Security Posture 1

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Buildpacks Io Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

Recommended x-agentic-access execution contracts for AI agents.

Buildpacks Io Agentic Access

3 operations

3 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 3

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

Documentation 8

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Scroll for all 8

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

Design & Contract 3

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Build 11

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

Scroll for all 11

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Learn 1

Tutorials, courses, talks, and written guidance

Operate 6

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Other 11

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Scroll for all 11

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑
aid: buildpacks-io
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/buildpacks-io.png
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/buildpacks-io/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
apis:
- aid: buildpacks-io:buildpack-spec
  name: Buildpack Specification
  tags:
  - Cloud Native Buildpacks
  - Buildpack API
  - Specification
  - CNCF
  humanURL: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/buildpack.md
  properties:
  - url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/buildpack.md
    type: Documentation
  - url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec
    type: Repository
  - url: json-schema/buildpacks-buildpack-toml-schema.json
    type: JSONSchema
  - url: json-schema/buildpacks-build-plan-schema.json
    type: JSONSchema
  - url: json-schema/buildpacks-launch-toml-schema.json
    type: JSONSchema
  - url: json-structure/buildpacks-io-structure.json
    type: JSONStructure
  - url: json-ld/buildpacks-io-context.jsonld
    type: JSONLD
  description: The Buildpack API (currently 0.12) defines the contract between an individual buildpack and the lifecycle.
    It specifies the on-disk layout of a buildpack (buildpack.toml, bin/detect, bin/build), the build plan provides/requires
    graph, layer types (launch/build/cache), launch.toml and build.toml outputs, target declarations (os/arch/distros), SBOM
    emission, and the CNB_* environment variable contract.
- aid: buildpacks-io:platform-spec
  name: Platform Specification
  tags:
  - Cloud Native Buildpacks
  - Platform API
  - Specification
  - CNCF
  humanURL: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/platform.md
  properties:
  - url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/platform.md
    type: Documentation
  - url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec
    type: Repository
  - url: json-structure/buildpacks-io-structure.json
    type: JSONStructure
  description: The Platform API (currently 0.15) defines how platforms (pack, kpack, Tekton Pipelines, GitLab Auto DevOps,
    CircleCI Orb, Project Piper) orchestrate the lifecycle. Specifies the lifecycle binary surface (analyzer, detector, restorer,
    extender, builder, exporter, creator, rebaser, launcher), the TOML files exchanged on disk (group.toml, plan.toml, order.toml,
    run.toml, metadata.toml, report.toml, analyzed.toml, project-metadata.toml), the standard io.buildpacks.* OCI image labels,
    and runtime process selection.
- aid: buildpacks-io:distribution-spec
  name: Distribution Specification
  tags:
  - Cloud Native Buildpacks
  - Distribution
  - OCI
  - CNCF
  humanURL: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/distribution.md
  properties:
  - url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/distribution.md
    type: Documentation
  - url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec
    type: Repository
  description: The Distribution API (currently 0.3) defines how buildpacks, extensions, and builders are packaged as OCI artifacts
    and published to OCI registries. Covers labels (io.buildpacks.buildpack.api, io.buildpacks.buildpack.layers), multi-buildpack
    OCI artifacts, and image extension distribution.
- aid: buildpacks-io:image-extension-spec
  name: Image Extension Specification
  tags:
  - Cloud Native Buildpacks
  - Image Extension
  - Dockerfile
  - Specification
  humanURL: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/image_extension.md
  properties:
  - url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/image_extension.md
    type: Documentation
  - url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec
    type: Repository
  description: Image extensions emit Dockerfile snippets applied by the `extender` lifecycle binary to the build and/or run
    image. Share the buildpack surface (extension.toml, bin/detect, bin/generate) but produce Dockerfile output instead of
    layers — enabling base-image customization (apt packages, native libs) inside a buildpacks workflow.
- aid: buildpacks-io:project-descriptor-spec
  name: Project Descriptor (project.toml)
  tags:
  - Cloud Native Buildpacks
  - Project Descriptor
  - App Surface
  humanURL: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/extensions/project-descriptor.md
  properties:
  - url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/extensions/project-descriptor.md
    type: Documentation
  - url: json-schema/buildpacks-project-toml-schema.json
    type: JSONSchema
  description: The Project Descriptor extension defines project.toml — the optional app-root file letting developers declare
    their builder image, include/exclude globs, buildpack overrides (pre/group/post), and build-time env vars. Read by `pack
    build` and other platforms before invoking the lifecycle.
- aid: buildpacks-io:service-bindings-spec
  name: Service Bindings Extension
  tags:
  - Cloud Native Buildpacks
  - Service Bindings
  - Kubernetes
  humanURL: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/extensions/bindings.md
  properties:
  - url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/extensions/bindings.md
    type: Documentation
  description: The Service Bindings extension specifies how external service credentials and configuration are surfaced to
    detect and build under $CNB_PLATFORM_DIR/bindings/. Aligns with the Service Binding Specification for Kubernetes and lets
    buildpacks discover databases, message brokers, and CA bundles without provider coupling.
- aid: buildpacks-io:buildpacks-io-buildpacks-api
  name: buildpacks-io Buildpacks API
  description: Retrieve buildpack version metadata
  humanURL: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/buildpack.md
  tags:
  - Buildpacks
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/buildpacks-io-buildpacks-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/extensions/buildpack-registry.md
  - type: Portal
    url: https://registry.buildpacks.io
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/buildpacks/registry-index
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/buildpacks/registry-api
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/buildpacks-registry-search-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/buildpacks-registry-version-example.json
- aid: buildpacks-io:buildpacks-io-search-api
  name: buildpacks-io Search API
  description: Search the buildpack registry by keyword
  humanURL: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/buildpack.md
  tags:
  - Search
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/buildpacks-io-search-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec/blob/main/extensions/buildpack-registry.md
  - type: Portal
    url: https://registry.buildpacks.io
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/buildpacks/registry-index
  - type: Repository
    url: https://github.com/buildpacks/registry-api
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/buildpacks-registry-search-example.json
  - type: Examples
    url: examples/buildpacks-registry-version-example.json
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/buildpacks-io-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/buildpacks-io-domain-security.yml
- url: https://buildpacks.io
  type: Portal
- url: https://buildpacks.io/docs/
  type: Documentation
- url: https://buildpacks.io/docs/concepts/
  name: Concepts
  type: Documentation
- url: https://buildpacks.io/docs/for-app-developers/
  name: For App Developers
  type: Documentation
- url: https://buildpacks.io/docs/for-buildpack-authors/
  name: For Buildpack Authors
  type: Documentation
- url: https://buildpacks.io/docs/for-platform-operators/
  name: For Platform Operators
  type: Documentation
- url: https://buildpacks.io/docs/reference/
  name: Reference
  type: Documentation
- url: https://buildpacks.io/docs/app-journey
  name: An App's Brief Journey from Source to Image
  type: GettingStarted
- url: https://buildpacks.io/community/
  type: Community
- url: https://buildpacks.io/releases/
  name: Releases
  type: ReleaseNotes
- url: https://medium.com/buildpacks
  name: Buildpacks on Medium
  type: Blog
- url: https://www.youtube.com/@buildpacks
  type: VideoChannel
- url: https://twitter.com/buildpacks_io
  type: SocialMedia
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks
  name: Cloud Native Buildpacks GitHub
  type: GitHubOrganization
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks-community
  name: CNB Community GitHub
  type: GitHubOrganization
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/spec
  name: Buildpacks Specification
  type: Repository
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/rfcs
  name: Buildpacks RFCs
  type: Repository
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/community
  name: Community Repository
  type: Repository
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/community/blob/main/GOVERNANCE.md
  type: Governance
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/community/blob/main/ROADMAP.md
  type: RoadMap
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/community/blob/main/TEAMS.md
  name: Teams
  type: Documentation
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/community/blob/main/ADOPTERS.md
  name: Adopters
  type: CaseStudies
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/pack
  name: pack CLI
  type: Tools
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/lifecycle
  name: lifecycle
  type: Tools
- url: https://hub.docker.com/r/buildpacksio/lifecycle
  name: buildpacksio/lifecycle Docker image
  type: ContainerImage
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/libcnb
  name: libcnb (Go)
  type: SDKs
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/libcnb-rs
  name: libcnb (Rust)
  type: SDKs
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks-community/libcnb.net
  name: libcnb (.NET)
  type: SDKs
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/samples
  name: Samples
  type: CodeExamples
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/github-actions
  name: GitHub Actions for Buildpacks
  type: Tools
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/pack-orb
  name: pack CircleCI Orb
  type: Tools
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks-community/kpack
  name: kpack (Kubernetes)
  type: Tools
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/registry-index
  name: Registry Index
  type: Repository
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/registry-api
  name: Registry API
  type: Repository
- url: https://registry.buildpacks.io
  name: Buildpack Registry
  type: Portal
- url: https://buildpacks.devstats.cncf.io/
  name: CNCF DevStats
  type: Analytics
- url: https://www.cncf.io/projects/buildpacks/
  name: CNCF Incubating Project Page
  type: Documentation
- url: https://lists.cncf.io/g/cncf-buildpacks
  type: MailingList
- url: https://slack.cncf.io
  name: CNCF Slack (#buildpacks)
  type: Forums
- url: https://github.com/buildpacks/community/discussions
  type: Forums
- url: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/buildpack
  name: Stack Overflow — buildpack tag
  type: Forums
- type: Features
  data:
  - Buildpack API 0.12 — modular detect/build contract producing OCI layers without Dockerfiles
  - Platform API 0.15 — lifecycle orchestration surface (analyze, detect, restore, extend, build, export, rebase, launch)
  - Distribution API 0.3 — OCI-packaged buildpacks, extensions, and builders
  - Image extensions — Dockerfile snippets applied by the `extender` for base-image customization
  - Project Descriptor (project.toml) — declarative app-side build configuration
  - Build plan with provides/requires reconciliation across composite (meta) buildpacks
  - Per-layer caching with launch/build/cache types in `<layer>.toml`
  - Rebase — swap run image base layers in seconds without rebuilding app layers
  - Targets (os/arch/distros) replacing the legacy stacks model since Buildpack API 0.12
  - Per-layer SBOM emission in CycloneDX, SPDX, and Syft formats; aggregated into io.buildpacks.build.metadata
  - Standard OCI image labels (io.buildpacks.lifecycle.metadata, io.buildpacks.build.metadata, io.buildpacks.project.metadata,
    io.buildpacks.rebasable)
  - Reference lifecycle distributed as buildpacksio/lifecycle Docker image
  - Reference CLI `pack` (v0.40.6, May 2026) implementing the Platform Interface Specification
  - Public community registry at registry.buildpacks.io with `pack buildpack register/pull/yank`
  - Language bindings via libcnb (Go), libcnb-rs (Rust), and libcnb.net (.NET)
  - Kubernetes-native platform via kpack with Image/Builder/Stack CRDs
  - CI integrations — GitHub Actions, CircleCI Orb, GitLab Auto DevOps, Tekton, Project Piper
  - Multi-arch builders (linux/amd64, linux/arm64, windows) selected via target reconciliation
  - Service Bindings extension aligned with the Service Binding Specification for Kubernetes
  - Vendor-neutral CNCF Incubating project (incubation since 2018-10) with public RFC process
  sources:
  - https://buildpacks.io/
  - https://buildpacks.io/docs/
  - https://github.com/buildpacks/spec
  - https://github.com/buildpacks/rfcs
  - https://github.com/buildpacks/community
  - https://www.cncf.io/projects/buildpacks/
  updated: '2026-05-25'
- url: vocabulary/buildpacks-io-vocabulary.yml
  type: Vocabulary
- url: rules/buildpacks-io-rules.yml
  type: SpectralRules
- url: json-ld/buildpacks-io-context.jsonld
  type: JSONLD
created: '2026-05-25'
modified: '2026-05-25'
position: Producing
description: Cloud Native Buildpacks (CNB) is a CNCF Incubating project that transforms application source code into OCI images
  that can run on any cloud. The v3 specification — Buildpack API 0.12, Platform API 0.15, and Distribution API 0.3 — defines
  a modular, vendor-neutral contract between buildpacks, builders, lifecycles, and platforms. CNB consolidates a decade of
  production experience from Heroku and Pivotal/Cloud Foundry and provides the reference lifecycle (buildpacksio/lifecycle),
  the `pack` CLI, language bindings (libcnb in Go/Rust/.NET), the Kubernetes-native `kpack` platform, the public community
  registry at registry.buildpacks.io, and an open RFC-driven governance model.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: info@apievangelist.com
  X: apievangelist
  url: https://apievangelist.com
specificationVersion: '0.16'