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Youki
youki is an open source container runtime written in Rust that implements the OCI runtime specification as a memory-safe alternative to runc, with rootless container support, cgroups v1 and v2, seccomp filtering, and systemd integration. Maintained as a CNCF sandbox project under the youki-dev organization, youki is adopted by container engines such as containerd, Podman, and Docker for executing OCI-compliant workloads.
Youki publishes 2 APIs on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Containers, Container Runtime, OCI, Rust, and CNCF.
The Youki catalog on APIs.io includes 2 JSON-LD contexts and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.
Youki’s developer surface includes documentation, release notes, changelog, support, and 3 more developer resources.
2 APIs
9 Features
5 Use Cases
Containers Container Runtime OCI Rust CNCF Cloud Native Kubernetes
On this page
Kin Score
APIs 2
Pricing Plans 1
Rate Limits 1
FinOps 1
Features 9
Vocabularies 2
Spectral Rules 1
JSON Schema 23
JSON Structure 23
Examples 23
Use Cases 5
Integrations 7
Solutions 3
Resources 7
apis.yml
53 Operational Transparency
Composite quality — 40.0/100 · thin
Contract Quality
8.5 / 25
Developer Ergonomics
2.6 / 20
Commercial Clarity
7.9 / 20
Operational Transparency
6.8 / 13
Agent readiness — 3/100 · human only
Machine-Readable Contract
0 / 18
Agentic Access Contract
0 / 10
MCP Server
0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth
0 / 10
Idempotency
0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics
0 / 8
Request/Response Examples
0 / 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
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.
Notable capabilities this provider offers.
Scroll for all 9
JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.
Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.
Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.
Scroll for all 23
JSON Structure definitions describing this provider's data shapes.
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Example request and response payloads for these APIs.
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What developers build with this provider.
Pre-built integrations with other platforms and tools.
Scroll for all 7
Packaged solutions this provider offers.
Documentation 1
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Design & Contract 1
Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events
Build 2
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Operate 3
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Source (apis.yml)
aid: youki
name: Youki
description: youki is an open source container runtime written in Rust that implements the OCI runtime specification as a
memory-safe alternative to runc, with rootless container support, cgroups v1 and v2, seccomp filtering, and systemd integration.
Maintained as a CNCF sandbox project under the youki-dev organization, youki is adopted by container engines such as containerd,
Podman, and Docker for executing OCI-compliant workloads.
type: Index
accessModel:
pricing: freemium
onboarding: unknown
trial: false
try_now: false
public: false
label: Freemium
confidence: medium
source:
- plans
generated: '2026-07-22'
method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/youki.png
tags:
- Containers
- Container Runtime
- OCI
- Rust
- CNCF
- Cloud Native
- Kubernetes
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/youki/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-03-26'
modified: '2026-05-03'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: youki:youki
name: Youki Container Runtime
description: youki is a container runtime written in Rust that implements the OCI runtime specification, providing a memory-safe
and high-performance alternative to runc. It supports rootless containers, cgroups v1 and v2, seccomp filtering, capabilities,
and Linux namespaces, and integrates with container engines including containerd, Podman, Docker, and Kubernetes.
humanURL: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki
tags:
- Container Runtime
- OCI
- Rust
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://youki-dev.github.io/youki/
- type: GettingStarted
url: https://youki-dev.github.io/youki/user/basic_usage.html
- type: GitHubRepository
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki
- type: ReleaseNotes
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki/releases
- type: ChangeLog
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
- type: CLI
url: https://crates.io/crates/youki
title: youki CLI
- type: SDKs
url: https://crates.io/crates/libcontainer
title: libcontainer (Rust)
- type: SDKs
url: https://crates.io/crates/libcgroups
title: libcgroups (Rust)
- type: SDKs
url: https://crates.io/crates/liboci-cli
title: liboci-cli (Rust)
- type: CodeExamples
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki/tree/main/tools/wasm-sample
title: WebAssembly Sample
- type: Tutorials
url: https://youki-dev.github.io/youki/user/webassembly.html
title: Running WebAssembly Workloads
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-schema.json
title: OCI Runtime Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-state-schema.json
title: OCI Runtime State Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-features-schema.json
title: OCI Runtime Features Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-linux.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-windows.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-solaris.json
title: OCI Runtime Solaris Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-freebsd.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-zos.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-vm.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-features-linux.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Features Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-defs.json
title: OCI Runtime Common Definitions
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-defs-linux.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Definitions
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-defs-windows.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Definitions
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-defs-vm.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Definitions
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-defs-zos.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Definitions
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-defs-freebsd.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Definitions
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-state-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime State Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-features-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Features Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-linux-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-windows-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-solaris-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Solaris Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-freebsd-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-zos-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-vm-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-features-linux-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Features Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Common Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-linux-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-windows-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-vm-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-zos-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-freebsd-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Definitions Structure
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-state-example.json
title: OCI Runtime State Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-features-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Features Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-linux-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-windows-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-solaris-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Solaris Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-freebsd-example.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-zos-example.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-vm-example.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-features-linux-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Features Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Common Definitions Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-linux-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Definitions Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-windows-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Definitions Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-vm-example.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Definitions Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-zos-example.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Definitions Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-freebsd-example.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Definitions Example
- type: JSONLD
url: json-ld/youki-oci-runtime-context.jsonld
title: OCI Runtime JSON-LD Context
- aid: youki:oci-spec-rs
name: OCI Spec for Rust
description: oci-spec-rs is a Rust implementation of the OCI Runtime, Image, and Distribution Specifications, providing
the data structures and types consumed by youki and other Rust-based container tooling.
humanURL: https://github.com/youki-dev/oci-spec-rs
tags:
- OCI
- Rust
- Specification
properties:
- type: GitHubRepository
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/oci-spec-rs
- type: SDKs
url: https://crates.io/crates/oci-spec
title: oci-spec (Rust)
- type: Documentation
url: https://docs.rs/oci-spec
title: oci-spec API Docs
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-schema.json
title: OCI Runtime Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-state-schema.json
title: OCI Runtime State Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-features-schema.json
title: OCI Runtime Features Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-config-schema.json
title: OCI Image Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-manifest-schema.json
title: OCI Image Manifest Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-index-schema.json
title: OCI Image Index Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-layout-schema.json
title: OCI Image Layout Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-content-descriptor.json
title: OCI Image Content Descriptor Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-defs.json
title: OCI Image Common Definitions
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-defs-descriptor.json
title: OCI Image Descriptor Definitions
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-state-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime State Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-features-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Features Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-linux-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-windows-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-solaris-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Solaris Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-freebsd-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-zos-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-vm-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-features-linux-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Features Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Common Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-linux-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-windows-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-vm-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-zos-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-freebsd-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-config-structure.json
title: OCI Image Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-manifest-structure.json
title: OCI Image Manifest Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-index-structure.json
title: OCI Image Index Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-layout-structure.json
title: OCI Image Layout Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-content-descriptor-structure.json
title: OCI Image Content Descriptor Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-defs-structure.json
title: OCI Image Common Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-defs-descriptor-structure.json
title: OCI Image Descriptor Definitions Structure
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-state-example.json
title: OCI Runtime State Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-features-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Features Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-linux-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-windows-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-solaris-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Solaris Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-freebsd-example.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-zos-example.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-vm-example.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-features-linux-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Features Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Common Definitions Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-linux-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Definitions Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-windows-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Definitions Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-vm-example.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Definitions Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-zos-example.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Definitions Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-freebsd-example.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Definitions Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-image-config-example.json
title: OCI Image Config Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-image-manifest-example.json
title: OCI Image Manifest Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-image-index-example.json
title: OCI Image Index Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-image-layout-example.json
title: OCI Image Layout Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-image-content-descriptor-example.json
title: OCI Image Content Descriptor Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-image-defs-example.json
title: OCI Image Common Definitions Example
- type: Examples
url: examples/oci-image-defs-descriptor-example.json
title: OCI Image Descriptor Definitions Example
- type: JSONLD
url: json-ld/youki-oci-runtime-context.jsonld
title: OCI Runtime JSON-LD Context
- type: JSONLD
url: json-ld/youki-oci-image-context.jsonld
title: OCI Image JSON-LD Context
common:
- type: Documentation
url: https://youki-dev.github.io/youki/
- type: GitHubOrganization
url: https://github.com/youki-dev
- type: GitHubRepository
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki
- type: ReleaseNotes
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki/releases
- type: ChangeLog
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
- type: Support
url: https://youki-dev.github.io/youki/community/introduction.html
- type: Vocabulary
url: vocabulary/youki-vocabulary.yaml
title: Youki Vocabulary
- type: Features
data:
- name: OCI Runtime Spec Compliance
description: Implements the Open Container Initiative (OCI) runtime specification, allowing youki to run any OCI-compliant
container alongside or in place of runc.
- name: Memory-Safe Rust Implementation
description: Written entirely in Rust to deliver memory safety and stronger isolation guarantees than C-based container
runtimes.
- name: Rootless Containers
description: Enables running containers without root privileges to reduce host attack surface for development and multi-tenant
scenarios.
- name: Cgroups v1 and v2 Support
description: Supports both legacy cgroups v1 and modern cgroups v2 hierarchies for resource management on Linux.
- name: Seccomp Filtering
description: Applies seccomp BPF filters to restrict syscalls available to containers and harden the runtime surface.
- name: Systemd Integration
description: Integrates with systemd as a cgroup manager and supports systemd-managed container processes.
- name: Linux Namespaces and Capabilities
description: Manages mount, UTS, IPC, user, PID, network, and cgroup namespaces and supports capabilities such as CAP_BPF,
CAP_PERFMON, and CAP_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE.
- name: Performance
description: Benchmarks show youki performing roughly twice as fast as runc for container create-to-delete cycles.
- name: CNCF Sandbox Project
description: Maintained as a Cloud Native Computing Foundation sandbox project with open governance, public roadmap, and
community contributors.
- type: UseCases
data:
- name: Drop-In runc Replacement
description: Use youki as a drop-in replacement for runc in container engines to gain memory safety and performance benefits
with no workload changes.
- name: Rootless Container Workflows
description: Run containers as a non-root user for development, CI, or multi-tenant environments where elevated privileges
are not desirable.
- name: Kubernetes Workloads via containerd
description: Use youki under containerd to execute Kubernetes pods and workloads in production clusters.
- name: Podman and Docker Container Execution
description: Configure Podman or Docker to invoke youki as the low-level OCI runtime for image execution.
- name: Container Runtime Research and Education
description: Explore and prototype container runtime features in a memory-safe codebase suitable for systems research,
security analysis, and teaching.
- type: Integrations
data:
- name: containerd
description: containerd has passed end-to-end testing against youki, enabling its use as the OCI runtime for Kubernetes
and other workloads orchestrated by containerd.
- name: Podman
description: Podman can be configured to use youki as its OCI runtime for both rootless and rootful container execution.
- name: Docker
description: Docker can call youki as the low-level OCI runtime in place of runc for compatible workloads via daemon.json
configuration.
- name: Kubernetes
description: Kubernetes clusters can run youki indirectly through container runtimes such as containerd or CRI-O.
- name: crun
description: youki sits alongside crun as a modern alternative to runc, focused on memory-safe systems programming in
Rust.
- name: systemd
description: Integrates with systemd for cgroup management and lifecycle control of container processes.
- name: oci-spec-rs
description: Built on oci-spec-rs, the Rust implementation of the OCI Runtime, Image, and Distribution specifications
maintained by the same organization.
- type: Solutions
data:
- name: Cloud Native Container Platforms
description: Provides a CNCF sandbox container runtime for cloud-native platforms looking to adopt a memory-safe OCI runtime
under containerd or CRI-O.
- name: Secure Multi-Tenant Hosts
description: Pairs rootless containers, seccomp filtering, and Rust memory safety to harden multi-tenant container hosts
against runtime exploits.
- name: Edge and Embedded Workloads
description: A lightweight, high-performance runtime suitable for edge and embedded deployments where resource use and
predictable performance matter.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
email: kin@apievangelist.com