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 6 API contracts indexed on the APIs.io network, including Containers API, Debug API, Information API, and 3 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 15 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Profile data on GitHub

33.3/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 20/100 agent aware Front door AI 1/6 silent Heartbeat 100/100 alive self hosted · Apache-2.0 Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0 · Show this score on your site →

AccessFree

2 published contracts

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 2026-11-06 · rubric v0.27.0

Composite quality — 33.3/100 · thin

Contract Quality 6.7 / 16

Developer Ergonomics 3.3 / 13

Access Clarity 0.7 / 13

Operational Transparency 3.1 / 8

Contract Governance 0.9 / 8

Discoverability 3.7 / 7

Regulatory Posture 0.9 / 15

Open Source Surface 10.0 / 10

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

Pagination 5 / 5

Distinct Operations 3 / 3

MCP Tool Quality 6 / 6

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Horizontal (data, software, accessibility, platform) regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

Open Source Surface applies to this provider. This product is open source and we read its repository directly, so Open Source Surface carries 10 points of the composite. It is scored from what the repository actually publishes — a security policy, a contribution guide, a release history, a code of conduct — read live from the provider rather than inferred from our own catalog pointers. This facet adds; nothing was taken away to make room for it. An open-source project is not excused from the commercial facets, because exemption would strip it of the points it does earn. If we have the wrong repository, or this product is not open source, say so on your provider repo and we will drop the facet rather than have you publish against it.

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.

The six quality facets above are damped to 65 points between them, because both conditional facets apply and carry 35 points together. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 65% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

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Agent readiness — checks not met, largest first (exact, from this profile):

MCP Server +12 pts — deployment.mode + probe verdict on the mcp/ manifest, not the pointer; an unprobed slug falls back to authorship
Machine-Readable Auth +10 pts — a served openid-configuration/oauth-authorization-server carrying `issuer` (served), else the securitySchemes class in the provider OpenAPIs — bound (mutualTLS, DPoP, Signature) > negotiable (oauth2 authorizationCode/clientCredentials, openIdConnect) > bearer (http bearer, apiKey)
Idempotency +9 pts — OpenAPI mutating operations declare an idempotency key — a header, a request-body property, or a named de-duplication token whose own description says so (verified); else common[].type matches /idempoten/i (documented)
Stable Error Semantics +8 pts — OpenAPI $refs a shared error schema across 4xx/5xx responses (verified), else common[].type includes ErrorCatalog / ErrorCodes / DeclineCodes
A2A Agent Card +8 pts — a2a/-a2a.yml manifest, graded on conformance.grade against A2A 1.0.0
Registration Without a Human +6 pts — a `registration_endpoint` in the served RFC 8414 / OIDC discovery document

9 more unmet checks in the Agent Readiness table above.

Kin Score — facets with the most composite points still available (weight × headroom):

Access Clarity scores 5.3 — up to +18.9 composite points
Developer Ergonomics scores 25.0 — up to +15.0 composite points
Contract Quality scores 41.3 — up to +14.7 composite points

Each check links to what satisfies it. Publish the artifact, or tell us where it already lives, and the score moves on the next scoring run.

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 the provider profile at artifacts.apis.io/cri-o/apis.yml: open an issue on github.com/api-evangelist/cri-o to ask a question or point us at an artifact you publish. Submit an artifact on GitHub — free → Manage your own listing — the Influence plan, $499/mo →

Markets this provider is in provisional

The Kin Score Market layer reads a provider inside its market: its position, and how deep its integrations go. Depth is only comparable within a position. Provisional and unweighted: not part of the Kin Score or agent readiness.

Market	Position	Depth	Registered MCP server	Declares compatibility
OpenSSF Best Practices Badge Holders	standard	58.8	-	-

Registered MCP server and declares compatibility are report only — not weighted. Undeclared means we found nothing we can read, so there is no number: we never infer integrations.

Standards implemented 1

Standards this provider implements or carries. De facto ones are profiled and measured by the API Commons; formal ones come from the standards directory and are linked by the provider's own tags. The evidence column says how each claim was established — not that it was made.

OpenAPI

measured — observed by APIs.io (published)

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 7

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

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 7

CRI-O API pricing

Not yet checked against CRI-O's own pricing page. Compiled by API Evangelist on 2026-05-05 from cri-o.io/; confirm before you rely on a figure. A free plan or tier is listed.

Plan	Price
Open Source freemium	Free

Plan details, limits and sources →

Rate limits

CRI gRPC API: not enforced upstream requests per second
Status HTTP API: not enforced upstream requests per second
Metrics endpoint: not enforced upstream requests per second

Compiled by API Evangelist, not yet checked against CRI-O's documentation. All 4 limits →

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

Service Levels 1

Uptime the provider promises or reports, as SLA4OAI. Read from its own pages; APIs.io runs no monitors.

CRI-O

SLA

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 — metrics rules

7 rules · 6 errors 1 warnings

SPECTRAL

CRI-O — status 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 4

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

RateLimits

IssueTracker

ChangeLog

Community

Commercial 3

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

Plans

Plans

FinOps

FinOps

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: self-hosted
  license: Apache-2.0
  license_evidence:
    repo: cri-o/cri-o
    spdx: Apache-2.0
    stars: 5661
  open_source: true
  commercial: false
  callable_host: false
  label: Self-hosted open source · you run it yourself
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - openapi
  - repository-license
  generated: '2026-09-25'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: free
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Free
  confidence: low
  try_now_blocked_by: loopback
  source:
  - plans
  - security
  generated: '2026-11-06'
  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
- Open-Source
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: Plans
  url: plans/cri-o-plans-pricing.yml
- type: RateLimits
  url: rate-limits/cri-o-rate-limits.yml
- type: FinOps
  url: finops/cri-o-finops.yml
- 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

CRI-O API — frequently asked questions

Does CRI-O have an API?

Yes. APIs.io lists 6 APIs from CRI-O, including CRI-O CRI gRPC API, CRI-O Containers API and CRI-O Debug API, and 3 more.

Is there an OpenAPI specification for the CRI-O API?

Yes. APIs.io indexes 5 OpenAPI specifications for CRI-O, each linked for download from this page.

How much does the CRI-O API cost?

APIs.io lists 1 pricing plan for CRI-O, with each plan's price, limits and inclusions under Pricing on this page.

Is the CRI-O API ready for AI agents?

CRI-O has a Kin Score of 33.3 out of 100 (thin) and an Agent Readiness score of 19.6 (agent-aware), scored by API Evangelist on 2026-11-06.

Work with this as data

Every provider here is available over the APIs.io API and to AI agents over MCP.

MCP server

One button, every client — Claude, Cursor, VS Code and the rest.

https://apis.io/mcp

Tools for providers

9 MCP tools reach this

find_providersBrowse and filter every provider in the catalog.
get_provider_artifactsEvery artifact this provider publishes, grouped by type.
get_provider_operationsEvery operation across all of their OpenAPIs — one call instead of parsing every spec.
get_provider_toolsEvery MCP tool they ship, with the operation each wraps.
get_provider_evidenceHow each part of their score was established. Free — the basis for a claim should not sit behind it.
get_provider_ratingPRO — composite, band, trend and facet scores.
apis_io_searchSTART HERE — APIs, providers and tags for one query, each with its total.
resolveTurn a domain, URL or GitHub org into the provider it belongs to.
find_cohortsEvery scored population of providers in the catalog.

All 92 tools →

Call it yourself

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Every operation they expose

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How their score was established

curl "https://apis.io/api/v1/providers/cri-o/evidence"

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