# CRI-O

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/cri-o/  
**Website:** https://cri-o.io/  
**APIs profiled:** 6

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.

## Kin Score — 36.4 / 100 (thin)

Scored 2026-08-20 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 36.4).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 64.8 |
| Contract Quality | 47.1 |
| Governance | 45.5 |
| Contract Governance | 45.5 |
| Operational Transparency | 36.8 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 26.2 |
| Commercial Clarity | 13.2 |
| Access Clarity | 13.2 |

## Agent readiness — 23.5 (agent-aware)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | yes |
| Agentic Access | derived |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | no |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | partial |
| 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

Free — onboarding: unknown, pricing: free, trial: no (confidence: medium).

## APIs (6)

- **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.

## Agentic access (1)

- **Cri O Agentic Access** — 7 operations · 2 acting

## Security (1)

- **Cri O Domain Security** — TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC

## Plans (1)

- **Cri O Plans Pricing**

## Tags

Apache 2.0, CNCF, Cloud-Native, conmon, Container Runtime, Containers, CRI, Go, Graduated, Kubernetes, OCI, Open-Source, Prometheus, runc

---

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