GitHub’s Container Registry hits general availability

GitHub has announced that its Container registry, part of GitHub Packages, is now generally available. The service has seen millions of downloads per day since the beta launched last year, and it has since gained several features aimed at making container management more practical for teams.

Text that reads "GitHub Packages - your packages, at home with their code" with a list of registry types: Container registry, RubyGems registry, npm registry, Apache Maven registry, Gradle registry, NuGet registry

What’s included now

The Container registry grants developers and organizations more control over how containers are stored, shared, and authenticated. Notable capabilities include:

  • Anonymous access for public containers
  • Organizational-level container ownership and internal visibility settings
  • Fine-grained permission controls, independent of repository visibility
  • Container-specific landing pages with metadata
  • Seamless authentication in Actions workflows using the GITHUB_TOKEN
  • Starter workflows to publish directly to ghcr.io

Docker registry consolidation

With this release, GitHub is consolidating the existing Docker registry into the Container registry. Containers previously published to docker.pkg.github.com will be automatically migrated over the coming weeks. Existing pull references and links will continue to work during and after the transition, and migrated containers inherit the new features. The Container registry remains free for now; billing for storage and bandwidth will begin in the coming months, following the standard GitHub Packages pricing model.

Early adopters and OCI support

The registry’s support for OCI images has proven useful for projects with substantial distribution needs. Homebrew now serves all of its bottle files through the Container registry on ghcr.io, moving over half a petabyte per month. The OCI/ORAS implementation gave Homebrew a standard API for querying and uploading binary artifacts, easing its migration.

Home Assistant has also shifted its installations to the registry; its latest image has passed 500 million downloads. The project cites the benefit of keeping source code, builds, and distribution co-located under one organizational admin model. The Helm project likewise moved the legacy Tiller image into GHCR, citing reduced management overhead by keeping containers next to source code.

Getting started

The Container registry documentation covers publishing and usage in detail. Questions can be directed to the GitHub Packages community, and upcoming work for GitHub Packages is tracked on the public roadmap.