overthinkos/inspect

ov image inspect -- Image Inspection

Invoked as ov image inspect <image>. See /ov:image for the family overview.

Overview

Displays the fully resolved configuration of an image as JSON. Shows base image, layers, ports, platforms, registry, tags, builder selections, volumes, and all computed metadata.

Quick Reference

| Action | Command | Description | |--------|---------|-------------| | Full inspect | ov image inspect <image> | Show complete resolved config as JSON | | Specific field | ov image inspect <image> --format FIELD | Extract a specific field |

Usage

# Inspect full image configuration
ov image inspect fedora

# Get specific field
ov image inspect jupyter --format ports

# Get the base image
ov image inspect sway-browser-vnc --format base

# Get layer list
ov image inspect ollama --format layers

# Get platforms
ov image inspect fedora --format platforms

# Get the builder map (build-type → builder image)
ov image inspect archlinux --format builder

# Get the builder capabilities this image declares
ov image inspect fedora-builder --format builds

Output Fields

The JSON output includes:

| Field | Description | |-------|-------------| | name | Image name | | base | Base image (another image name or external reference) | | layers | Ordered list of layers applied | | ports | Exposed ports from all layers | | platforms | Target platforms (e.g., linux/amd64, linux/arm64) | | registry | Container registry for push | | tags | Image tags | | builder | Build-type → builder-image map (e.g. {"pixi": "fedora-builder"}) — resolved from image → base → defaults | | builds | Builder capabilities this image declares (e.g. [pixi, npm, cargo, aur]) — not inherited | | volumes | Declared volumes from layers | | distro | Distro identity tags | | build | Package format tags |

All --format values are the JSON field names from the inspect output. When passing --format to select a map (like builder) or list, the CLI prints one entry per line.

Caveat — --format bind_mounts: this one format option reads deploy.yml (not image.yml), because bind-mount backings are a deploy-time concept (ov config --bind <volume> writes them to deploy.yml). The output is display-only — no OCI label contamination, no build-mode state leak. All other --format values (ports, volumes, layers, base, builder, …) are strictly image.yml-derived per the mode-purity invariant (see /ov:build and /ov-dev:go "Mode purity").

Project directory override

ov image inspect resolves image.yml via os.Getwd(). Override with -C <dir> / --dir <dir> / OV_PROJECT_DIR=<dir>. See /ov:image "Project directory resolution".

Cross-References

ov image family siblings

• /ov:image -- Family overview + image.yml composition reference
• /ov:build -- Build the inspected image
• /ov:generate -- Containerfile generation for the inspected image
• /ov:list -- Enumerate images before inspecting one
• /ov:merge -- Post-build layer consolidation
• /ov:new -- Scaffold new layers
• /ov:pull -- Fetch prebuilt images into local storage
• /ov:validate -- Validate image and layer definitions before inspect

Related skills

• /ov:layer -- Layer-level detail shown in inspect output
• /ov:deploy -- deploy.yml overlay applied on top of inspect's resolved config