CRI-O

CRI-O is a CNCF graduated, lightweight container runtime built specifically for Kubernetes. It implements the Kubernetes Container Runtime Interface (CRI) gRPC API and uses any Open Container Initiative (OCI) compatible runtime, including runc and crun, as the underlying container executor. CRI-O integrates with the containers/image and containers/storage libraries, the conmon container monitor, and CNI plugins to deliver a minimal kubelet-facing runtime surface, while also exposing an HTTP status API and Prometheus metrics endpoint for operations and observability.

CRI-O publishes 5 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Containers API, Debug API, Information API, and 2 more. Tagged areas include Apache 2.0, CNCF, Cloud-Native, conmon, and Container Runtime.

The CRI-O catalog on APIs.io includes 2 Spectral governance rulesets.

CRI-O’s developer surface includes documentation, getting-started guide, engineering blog, changelog, and 12 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

34.6/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 20/100 agent aware Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0

AccessFree

2 APIs

Apache 2.0 CNCF Cloud-NativeconmonContainer Runtime Containers CRI Go Graduated Kubernetes OCI Open-Source Prometheusrunc

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-09-08 · rubric v0.20.0

Composite quality — 34.6/100 · thin

Contract Quality 10.3 / 23

Developer Ergonomics 4.5 / 18

Access Clarity 2.4 / 18

Operational Transparency 4.3 / 12

Contract Governance 4.9 / 11

Discoverability 5.3 / 9

Create-or-Update Ergonomics 0.0 / 10

Agent readiness — 20/100 · agent aware

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 0 / 6

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

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Well-Known Document 0 / 5

Create-or-Update Ergonomics applies to this provider. This API accepts writes, so it carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from the published contracts themselves: whether a caller can create-or-update in one call, whether the write accepts a key the caller already holds, and whether the response says which branch ran. Without that, every write needs a search-and-branch in front of it, and the first time that check is skipped a duplicate record is created. Scored against the observed mean rather than raw — a provider at the catalog average is unchanged by this facet, not penalised by it.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. Every facet and dimension name above is a link: it opens that measurement's own page — what it means, the exact checks that feed it, how the whole catalog distributes on it, and the providers at the top of it. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/cri-o: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

APIs 6

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

CRI-O CRI gRPC API

CRI-O implements the Kubernetes Container Runtime Interface (CRI) gRPC API that the kubelet uses to manage pod sandboxes, containers, image lifecycle, and runtime status. The CR...

CRI-O Containers API

Endpoints that return information about live containers.

CRI-O Debug API

Golang debug endpoints for goroutines, heap, and profiling.

CRI-O Information API

Runtime version, configuration, and general info endpoints.

CRI-O Lifecycle API

Endpoints to pause and unpause running containers.

CRI-O Metrics API

Prometheus metrics scraping endpoint.

Open Collections 8

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

API Collection

OPEN COLLECTION

CRI-O Metrics Containers API

OPEN COLLECTION

CRI-O Metrics Containers Debug API

OPEN COLLECTION

CRI-O Metrics Containers Information API

OPEN COLLECTION

CRI-O Metrics Containers Lifecycle API

OPEN COLLECTION

CRI-O Containers Metrics API

OPEN COLLECTION

CRI-O Metrics API

OPEN COLLECTION

CRI-O Status API

OPEN COLLECTION

Scroll for all 8

Pricing Plans 1

Published pricing tiers and plan structures.

Cri O Plans Pricing

1 plans

PLANS

Rate Limits 1

Documented rate limits and quota policies.

Cri O Rate Limits

4 limits

RATE LIMITS

FinOps 1

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

Cri O Finops

FINOPS

Spectral Rules 2

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

CRI-O API Rules

7 rules · 6 errors 1 warnings

SPECTRAL

CRI-O API Rules

6 rules · 5 errors 1 warnings

SPECTRAL

Security Posture 1

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

Cri O Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC

SECURITY

Agentic Access 1

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

Cri O Agentic Access

7 operations · 2 acting

AGENTIC

Resources

Get Started 1

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

GettingStarted

GettingStarted

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

ContributionGuide

ContributionGuide

Documentation

Documentation

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

AgenticAccess

AgenticAccess

Build 3

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

CodeOfConduct

CodeOfConduct

GitHubOrganization

GitHubOrganization

GitHubRepository

GitHubRepository

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

SecurityPolicy

SecurityPolicy

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 3

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

IssueTracker

IssueTracker

ChangeLog

ChangeLog

Community

Community

Commercial 1

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

License

License

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

CNCF

CNCF

Source (apis.yml)

aid: cri-o
name: CRI-O
kind: opensource
description: CRI-O is a CNCF graduated, lightweight container runtime built specifically for Kubernetes. It implements the
  Kubernetes Container Runtime Interface (CRI) gRPC API and uses any Open Container Initiative (OCI) compatible runtime, including
  runc and crun, as the underlying container executor. CRI-O integrates with the containers/image and containers/storage libraries,
  the conmon container monitor, and CNI plugins to deliver a minimal kubelet-facing runtime surface, while also exposing an
  HTTP status API and Prometheus metrics endpoint for operations and observability.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/cri-o/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
deliveryModel:
  model: unknown
  open_source: unknown
  commercial: false
  callable_host: false
  label: Delivery model not determined — needs a product licence on record
  confidence: low
  source:
  - openapi
  - repository-unlicensed
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Free
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - plans
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/cri-o.png
tags:
- Apache 2.0
- CNCF
- Cloud-Native
- conmon
- Container Runtime
- Containers
- CRI
- Go
- Graduated
- Kubernetes
- OCI
- Open-Source
- Prometheus
- runc
tags_raw:
- Apache 2.0
- CNCF
- Cloud Native
- conmon
- Container Runtime
- Containers
- CRI
- Go
- Graduated
- Kubernetes
- OCI
- Open Source
- Prometheus
- runc
created: '2025-01-01'
modified: '2026-05-19'
specificationVersion: '0.23'
type: Index
access: Public
position: Producing
apis:
- aid: cri-o:cri-o-cri-grpc-api
  name: CRI-O CRI gRPC API
  description: CRI-O implements the Kubernetes Container Runtime Interface (CRI) gRPC API that the kubelet uses to manage
    pod sandboxes, containers, image lifecycle, and runtime status. The CRI gRPC API is served over a Unix domain socket (default
    /var/run/crio/crio.sock) and includes services for RuntimeService and ImageService as defined by the upstream CRI protobuf
    specification.
  humanURL: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/architecture/cri/
  properties:
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/architecture/cri/
  - type: Specification
    url: https://github.com/kubernetes/cri-api
  - type: GitHubRepository
    url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o
  tags:
  - CRI
  - gRPC
  - Kubelet
  - Kubernetes
- aid: cri-o:cri-o-containers-api
  name: CRI-O Containers API
  description: Endpoints that return information about live containers.
  humanURL: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/architecture/cri/
  baseURL: http://localhost
  tags:
  - Containers
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/cri-o-containers-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/cri-o-status-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/blob/main/docs/metrics.md
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/cri-o-metrics-rules.yml
- aid: cri-o:cri-o-debug-api
  name: CRI-O Debug API
  description: Golang debug endpoints for goroutines, heap, and profiling.
  humanURL: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/architecture/cri/
  baseURL: http://localhost
  tags:
  - Debug
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/cri-o-debug-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/cri-o-status-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/blob/main/docs/metrics.md
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/cri-o-metrics-rules.yml
- aid: cri-o:cri-o-information-api
  name: CRI-O Information API
  description: Runtime version, configuration, and general info endpoints.
  humanURL: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/architecture/cri/
  baseURL: http://localhost
  tags:
  - Information
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/cri-o-information-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/cri-o-status-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/blob/main/docs/metrics.md
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/cri-o-metrics-rules.yml
- aid: cri-o:cri-o-lifecycle-api
  name: CRI-O Lifecycle API
  description: Endpoints to pause and unpause running containers.
  humanURL: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/architecture/cri/
  baseURL: http://localhost
  tags:
  - Lifecycle
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/cri-o-lifecycle-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/cri-o-status-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/blob/main/docs/metrics.md
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/cri-o-metrics-rules.yml
- aid: cri-o:cri-o-metrics-api
  name: CRI-O Metrics API
  description: Prometheus metrics scraping endpoint.
  humanURL: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/architecture/cri/
  baseURL: http://localhost
  tags:
  - Metrics
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/cri-o-metrics-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/cri-o-status-rules.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/blob/main/docs/metrics.md
  - type: Rules
    url: rules/cri-o-metrics-rules.yml
common:
- type: IssueTracker
  url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/issues
- type: SecurityPolicy
  url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/blob/main/SECURITY.md
- type: CodeOfConduct
  url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/blob/main/code-of-conduct.md
- type: ContributionGuide
  url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/cri-o-agentic-access.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/cri-o-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://cri-o.io/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/tree/main/docs
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/blob/main/install.md
- type: GitHubOrganization
  url: https://github.com/cri-o
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o
- type: Blog
  url: https://cri-o.io/#blog
- type: ChangeLog
  url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/releases
- type: Community
  url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o#getting-started
- type: License
  url: https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/blob/main/LICENSE
- type: CNCF
  url: https://www.cncf.io/projects/cri-o/
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

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