Containerd website screenshot

Containerd

An industry-standard container runtime with an emphasis on simplicity, robustness and portability.

Containerd publishes 1 API on the APIs.io network: Metrics API. Tagged areas include Cloud Native, Container Runtime, CRI, Docker, and gRPC.

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

Containerd’s developer surface includes documentation, getting-started guide, changelog, and 12 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
46.8/100 developing ▬ flat Agent 28/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
4 APIs
Cloud NativeContainer RuntimeCRIDockergRPCKubernetesOCI

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-28 · rubric v0.6
Composite quality — 46.8/100 · developing
Contract Quality 16.1 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 4.8 / 20
Commercial Clarity 5.8 / 20
Operational Transparency 6.8 / 13
Governance 7.0 / 12
Discoverability 6.3 / 10
Agent readiness — 28/100 · 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 7 / 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/containerd: 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 4

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

Containerd gRPC API

Core gRPC API for managing the full container lifecycle including containers, images, content, snapshots, namespaces, tasks, leases, events, and plugins. Provides low-level acce...

Containerd CRI API

Container Runtime Interface (CRI) implementation that enables Kubernetes to use containerd as its container runtime. Supports pod sandbox management, container lifecycle operati...

Containerd NRI API

The Node Resource Interface (NRI) is a framework for plugging extensions into OCI-compatible container runtimes. NRI plugins receive lifecycle event notifications and can make c...

Containerd Metrics API

Prometheus-compatible metrics endpoints exposing containerd runtime statistics including gRPC request rates, snapshot usage, and task lifecycle counts.

Open Collections 1

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

Containerd Metrics API

OPEN COLLECTION

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Containerd Plans Pricing

1 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Containerd Rate Limits

3 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.

Containerd Finops

FINOPS

Semantic Vocabularies 1

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

Containerd Context

0 classes · 12 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 2

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

Containerd API Rules

6 rules · 4 warnings 2 info

SPECTRAL

Containerd API Rules

7 rules · 4 errors 2 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 2

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

Containerd Configuration

16 properties

JSON SCHEMA

OCI Runtime Specification

9 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Security Posture 1

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

Containerd Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

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

Containerd Agentic Access

1 operation

1 operations · 0 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

GettingStarted
GettingStarted

Documentation 3

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation
Documentation
 JSONSchema
JSONSchema
 JSONSchema
JSONSchema

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess
AgenticAccess

Design & Contract 2

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

JSONLD
JSONLD
 Spectral
Spectral

Build 2

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubOrganization
GitHubOrganization
 GitHubRepository
GitHubRepository

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity

Operate 2

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

ChangeLog
ChangeLog
 Community
Community

Commercial 1

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

License
License

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Website
Website

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

CNCF Project
CNCF Project

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: containerd
name: Containerd
description: An industry-standard container runtime with an emphasis on simplicity, robustness and portability.
url: https://containerd.io/
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/containerd.png
tags:
- Cloud Native
- Container Runtime
- CRI
- Docker
- gRPC
- Kubernetes
- OCI
created: '2025-01-01'
modified: '2026-05-19'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
type: Index
apis:
- aid: containerd:containerd-grpc-api
  name: Containerd gRPC API
  description: Core gRPC API for managing the full container lifecycle including containers, images, content, snapshots, namespaces,
    tasks, leases, events, and plugins. Provides low-level access to all containerd functionality through Protocol Buffers
    service definitions.
  humanURL: https://github.com/containerd/containerd/tree/main/api
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://containerd.io/docs/
  - type: Reference
    url: https://github.com/containerd/containerd/tree/main/api
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/containerd-config-schema.json
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/containerd-oci-runtime-spec-schema.json
  tags:
  - Container Runtime
  - gRPC
  - Lifecycle Management
- aid: containerd:containerd-cri-api
  name: Containerd CRI API
  description: Container Runtime Interface (CRI) implementation that enables Kubernetes to use containerd as its container
    runtime. Supports pod sandbox management, container lifecycle operations, image pulling, and streaming APIs for exec,
    attach, and port-forward.
  humanURL: https://github.com/containerd/containerd/tree/main/pkg/cri
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://containerd.io/docs/
  - type: Reference
    url: https://github.com/containerd/containerd/tree/main/pkg/cri
  - type: JSONSchema
    url: json-schema/containerd-config-schema.json
  tags:
  - Container Runtime
  - CRI
  - Kubernetes
- aid: containerd:containerd-nri-api
  name: Containerd NRI API
  description: The Node Resource Interface (NRI) is a framework for plugging extensions into OCI-compatible container runtimes.
    NRI plugins receive lifecycle event notifications and can make controlled modifications to container configurations before
    creation, enabling domain-specific resource management without modifying the runtime itself.
  humanURL: https://github.com/containerd/nri
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/containerd/containerd/blob/main/docs/NRI.md
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/containerd/nri
  tags:
  - Extensibility
  - Kubernetes
  - NRI
  - Plugins
- aid: containerd:containerd-metrics-api
  name: Containerd Metrics API
  description: Prometheus-compatible metrics endpoints exposing containerd runtime statistics including gRPC request rates,
    snapshot usage, and task lifecycle counts.
  humanURL: https://github.com/containerd/containerd/tree/main/api
  tags:
  - Metrics
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/containerd-metrics-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://containerd.io/docs/
common:
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/containerd-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/containerd-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://containerd.io/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://containerd.io/docs/
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://containerd.io/docs/getting-started/
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/containerd
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/containerd/containerd
- type: ChangeLog
  url: https://github.com/containerd/containerd/releases
- type: Community
  url: https://cloud-native.slack.com/
- type: CNCF Project
  url: https://www.cncf.io/projects/containerd/
- type: License
  url: https://github.com/containerd/containerd/blob/main/LICENSE
- type: JSONLD
  url: json-ld/containerd-context.jsonld
- type: JSONSchema
  url: json-schema/containerd-config-schema.json
- type: JSONSchema
  url: json-schema/containerd-oci-runtime-spec-schema.json
- type: Spectral
  url: rules/containerd-rules.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
kind: opensource