# Skopeo

> Apache-2.0 copy/inspect OCI images without a daemon

**Category:** DevOps  
**Pricing:** open-source  
**URL:** https://github.com/podman-container-tools/skopeo  
**GitHub:** https://github.com/podman-container-tools/skopeo  
**Added:** 2026-09-14

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## The Hook

Skopeo moves and inspects images across registries and local stores when you refuse to `docker pull` just to copy a digest.

## What's Good

Apache-2.0. containers/skopeo. `skopeo copy` / `inspect` / `delete` / `sync` across docker://, dir://, oci:, containers-storage:, and more — no container daemon required. Same containers org family as Podman/Buildah. Source github.com/containers/skopeo.

## The Catch

Vs crane (go-containerregistry mutate/digest CLI) and Dive (layer UI): Skopeo is the *policy-friendly copy/inspect/sync* tool in the containers toolkit, not a layer explorer and not an image builder (that’s Buildah). Signing/policy config is powerful and easy to misconfigure once.

## Verdict

Apache-2.0 daemonless image copy. Free forever; pair with Buildah/Podman, use crane when you live in go-containerregistry scripts.