Cloud Native Buildpacks Pack is a free CLI for building applications with buildpacks and rebasing the resulting application images. It is also available as a Go library. Buildpacks turn source code into container images designed to run on any cloud. Listed capabilities include caching, source auto-detection, modular buildpacks, support for multiple languages and processes, minimal images, reproducible builds, and reuse of community buildpacks. Pack can produce build-time software bills of materials in CycloneDX, SPDX, and Syft JSON formats. The CLI is available for Linux, macOS, and Windows, with package-manager, container-image, script, and manual installation options. Builds require a containerized environment and a daemon such as Docker or Podman; some setups may need the local Docker socket mounted. Documented integrations include CircleCI, GitLab Auto DevOps, and Tekton. The project also describes kpack for Kubernetes-based builds and image updates. Pack is Apache-2.0 licensed, with no paid plans listed.
Who it is for
Pack suits developers who build container images with buildpacks and teams that want a CLI or Go library for that work. Its documented integrations and Kubernetes-related tooling may also fit build workflows using those environments.
What is good
- Free CLI and Go library
- Supports build and image rebasing
- Produces SBOMs in three listed formats
- Available for Linux, macOS, and Windows
What to know first
- Builds require Docker, Podman, or another daemon
- Some setups may require mounting the Docker socket
Verdict
Pack combines buildpack builds and rebasing with several listed integrations and SBOM formats. It requires a containerized environment and a daemon for building.
Cloud Native Buildpacks Pack plans and pricing
All plansCompared on container build tools
- Free plan
- Yes
- Build method
- local_daemon
- Multi-architecture builds
- Yes
- Build cache backends
- multiple
- SBOM generation
- Yes
