Rockcraft is the command-line tool for building rocks, which are OCI-compliant container images based on Ubuntu. It handles all the repetitive and boilerplate steps of building a rock, directing your focus to what really matters – the rock's content. From independent software vendors to container users of any experience level, Rockcraft is for anyone who wants to build production-grade rocks.
A rock's build configuration is stored in simple language as a project file called
rockcraft.yaml.
From the root of your container's codebase, Rockcraft creates a minimal rockcraft.yaml with:
rockcraft initAfter you add all your container's packages and dependencies to the project file, bundle the rock with:
rockcraft packRockcraft is available on all major Linux distributions.
Rockcraft has first-class support as a snap. On snap-ready systems, you can install it on the command line with:
snap install rockcraft --classicThe Rockcraft documentation provides guidance and learning material about the full process of building a rock, debugging, the command reference, and much more.
Ask your questions about Rockcraft and what's on the horizon, and see who's working on what in the Rockcraft Matrix channel.
You can report any issues or bugs on the project's GitHub repository.
Rockcraft is covered by the Ubuntu Code of Conduct.
Rockcraft is open source and part of the Canonical family. We would love your help.
If you're interested, start with the contribution guide.
We welcome any suggestions and help with the docs. The Canonical Open Documentation Academy is the hub for doc development, including Rockcraft docs. No prior coding experience is required.
Rockcraft is released under the GPL-3.0 license.
© 2023-2025 Canonical Ltd.