# Containerfile

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/containerfile/  
**APIs profiled:** 4

A Containerfile is a plain text file that contains instructions for building container images. It is fully compatible with Docker's Dockerfile format and is the default file name used by Buildah and Podman. Containerfile instructions describe a base image (FROM), the steps to assemble the image (RUN, COPY, ADD, ARG, ENV), and runtime defaults (CMD, ENTRYPOINT, EXPOSE, USER, WORKDIR, VOLUME). Modern build engines extend the format with cache, secret, and SSH mounts and with platform-aware multi-stage builds.

## Kin Score — 18.7 / 100 (emerging)

Scored 2026-08-20 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 18.7).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 74.1 |
| Contract Quality | 0.0 |
| Governance | 0.0 |
| Contract Governance | 0.0 |
| Operational Transparency | 36.8 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 16.7 |
| Commercial Clarity | 15.8 |
| Access Clarity | 15.8 |

## Agent readiness — 3.0 (human-only)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | no |
| Agentic Access | no |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | no |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | no |
| Rate Limit Signal | documented |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Freemium — onboarding: unknown, pricing: freemium, trial: no (confidence: medium).

## APIs (4)

- **Containerfile Reference** — The official Containerfile reference shipped with the containers/common project. Documents every Containerfile instruction, syntax, and the ways Containerfile differs from Docke...
- **Dockerfile Reference** — The Dockerfile format reference maintained by Docker. Containerfile is a strict superset of Dockerfile, so the Dockerfile reference covers the same instruction set with Docker-s...
- **BuildKit Dockerfile Frontend** — Dockerfile and Containerfile parsing in modern Docker is performed by BuildKit's Dockerfile frontend, distributed as a container image (docker/dockerfile). The frontend version ...
- **OCI Image Specification** — The Open Container Initiative Image Specification defines the format of the image artifacts that Containerfile and Dockerfile builds produce. The spec covers manifests, configur...

## Security (2)

- **Containerfile Domain Security** — TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC
- **Containerfile Vulnerability Disclosure** — security.txt · contact published

## Plans (1)

- **Containerfile Plans Pricing**

## Tags

BuildKit, Buildah, Containers, DevOps, Docker, Dockerfile, Image Build, OCI, Podman, Standard

---

Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/containerfile/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.