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Youki
Youki
youki is an open source container runtime written in Rust that implements the OCI runtime specification as a memory-safe alternative to runc, with rootless container support, cgroups v1 and v2, seccomp filtering, and systemd integration. Maintained as a CNCF sandbox project under the youki-dev organization, youki is adopted by container engines such as containerd, Podman, and Docker for executing OCI-compliant workloads.
2 APIs
9 Features
Containers Container Runtime OCI Rust CNCF Cloud Native Kubernetes
youki is a container runtime written in Rust that implements the OCI runtime specification, providing a memory-safe and high-performance alternative to runc. It supports rootles...
oci-spec-rs is a Rust implementation of the OCI Runtime, Image, and Distribution Specifications, providing the data structures and types consumed by youki and other Rust-based c...
OCI Runtime Spec Compliance
Implements the Open Container Initiative (OCI) runtime specification, allowing youki to run any OCI-compliant container alongside or in place of runc.
Memory-Safe Rust Implementation
Written entirely in Rust to deliver memory safety and stronger isolation guarantees than C-based container runtimes.
Rootless Containers
Enables running containers without root privileges to reduce host attack surface for development and multi-tenant scenarios.
Cgroups v1 and v2 Support
Supports both legacy cgroups v1 and modern cgroups v2 hierarchies for resource management on Linux.
Seccomp Filtering
Applies seccomp BPF filters to restrict syscalls available to containers and harden the runtime surface.
Systemd Integration
Integrates with systemd as a cgroup manager and supports systemd-managed container processes.
Linux Namespaces and Capabilities
Manages mount, UTS, IPC, user, PID, network, and cgroup namespaces and supports capabilities such as CAP_BPF, CAP_PERFMON, and CAP_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE.
Performance
Benchmarks show youki performing roughly twice as fast as runc for container create-to-delete cycles.
CNCF Sandbox Project
Maintained as a Cloud Native Computing Foundation sandbox project with open governance, public roadmap, and community contributors.
Drop-In runc Replacement
Use youki as a drop-in replacement for runc in container engines to gain memory safety and performance benefits with no workload changes.
Rootless Container Workflows
Run containers as a non-root user for development, CI, or multi-tenant environments where elevated privileges are not desirable.
Kubernetes Workloads via containerd
Use youki under containerd to execute Kubernetes pods and workloads in production clusters.
Podman and Docker Container Execution
Configure Podman or Docker to invoke youki as the low-level OCI runtime for image execution.
Container Runtime Research and Education
Explore and prototype container runtime features in a memory-safe codebase suitable for systems research, security analysis, and teaching.
containerd
containerd has passed end-to-end testing against youki, enabling its use as the OCI runtime for Kubernetes and other workloads orchestrated by containerd.
Podman
Podman can be configured to use youki as its OCI runtime for both rootless and rootful container execution.
Docker
Docker can call youki as the low-level OCI runtime in place of runc for compatible workloads via daemon.json configuration.
Kubernetes
Kubernetes clusters can run youki indirectly through container runtimes such as containerd or CRI-O.
crun
youki sits alongside crun as a modern alternative to runc, focused on memory-safe systems programming in Rust.
systemd
Integrates with systemd for cgroup management and lifecycle control of container processes.
oci-spec-rs
Built on oci-spec-rs, the Rust implementation of the OCI Runtime, Image, and Distribution specifications maintained by the same organization.
Cloud Native Container Platforms
Provides a CNCF sandbox container runtime for cloud-native platforms looking to adopt a memory-safe OCI runtime under containerd or CRI-O.
Secure Multi-Tenant Hosts
Pairs rootless containers, seccomp filtering, and Rust memory safety to harden multi-tenant container hosts against runtime exploits.
Edge and Embedded Workloads
A lightweight, high-performance runtime suitable for edge and embedded deployments where resource use and predictable performance matter.
7 classes · 38 properties
JSON-LD
20 classes · 106 properties
JSON-LD
Sources
aid: youki
name: Youki
description: >-
youki is an open source container runtime written in Rust that implements the
OCI runtime specification as a memory-safe alternative to runc, with rootless
container support, cgroups v1 and v2, seccomp filtering, and systemd
integration. Maintained as a CNCF sandbox project under the youki-dev
organization, youki is adopted by container engines such as containerd, Podman,
and Docker for executing OCI-compliant workloads.
type: Index
image: https://kinlane-productions.s3.amazonaws.com/apis-json/apis-json-logo.jpg
tags:
- Containers
- Container Runtime
- OCI
- Rust
- CNCF
- Cloud Native
- Kubernetes
url: >-
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/youki/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
created: '2026-03-26'
modified: '2026-05-03'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis:
- aid: youki:youki
name: Youki Container Runtime
description: >-
youki is a container runtime written in Rust that implements the OCI
runtime specification, providing a memory-safe and high-performance
alternative to runc. It supports rootless containers, cgroups v1 and v2,
seccomp filtering, capabilities, and Linux namespaces, and integrates
with container engines including containerd, Podman, Docker, and
Kubernetes.
humanURL: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki
tags:
- Container Runtime
- OCI
- Rust
properties:
- type: Documentation
url: https://youki-dev.github.io/youki/
- type: GettingStarted
url: https://youki-dev.github.io/youki/user/basic_usage.html
- type: GitHubRepository
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki
- type: ReleaseNotes
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki/releases
- type: ChangeLog
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
- type: CLI
url: https://crates.io/crates/youki
title: youki CLI
- type: SDK
url: https://crates.io/crates/libcontainer
title: libcontainer (Rust)
- type: SDK
url: https://crates.io/crates/libcgroups
title: libcgroups (Rust)
- type: SDK
url: https://crates.io/crates/liboci-cli
title: liboci-cli (Rust)
- type: CodeExamples
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki/tree/main/tools/wasm-sample
title: WebAssembly Sample
- type: Tutorials
url: https://youki-dev.github.io/youki/user/webassembly.html
title: Running WebAssembly Workloads
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-schema.json
title: OCI Runtime Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-state-schema.json
title: OCI Runtime State Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-features-schema.json
title: OCI Runtime Features Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-linux.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-windows.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-solaris.json
title: OCI Runtime Solaris Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-freebsd.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-zos.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-vm.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-features-linux.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Features Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-defs.json
title: OCI Runtime Common Definitions
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-defs-linux.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Definitions
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-defs-windows.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Definitions
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-defs-vm.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Definitions
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-defs-zos.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Definitions
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-defs-freebsd.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Definitions
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-state-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime State Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-features-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Features Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-linux-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-windows-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-solaris-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Solaris Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-freebsd-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-zos-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-vm-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-features-linux-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Features Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Common Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-linux-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-windows-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-vm-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-zos-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-freebsd-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Definitions Structure
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-state-example.json
title: OCI Runtime State Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-features-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Features Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-linux-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-windows-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-solaris-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Solaris Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-freebsd-example.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-zos-example.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-vm-example.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-features-linux-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Features Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Common Definitions Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-linux-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Definitions Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-windows-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Definitions Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-vm-example.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Definitions Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-zos-example.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Definitions Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-freebsd-example.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Definitions Example
- type: JSON-LD
url: json-ld/youki-oci-runtime-context.jsonld
title: OCI Runtime JSON-LD Context
- aid: youki:oci-spec-rs
name: OCI Spec for Rust
description: >-
oci-spec-rs is a Rust implementation of the OCI Runtime, Image, and
Distribution Specifications, providing the data structures and types
consumed by youki and other Rust-based container tooling.
humanURL: https://github.com/youki-dev/oci-spec-rs
tags:
- OCI
- Rust
- Specification
properties:
- type: GitHubRepository
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/oci-spec-rs
- type: SDK
url: https://crates.io/crates/oci-spec
title: oci-spec (Rust)
- type: Documentation
url: https://docs.rs/oci-spec
title: oci-spec API Docs
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-config-schema.json
title: OCI Runtime Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-state-schema.json
title: OCI Runtime State Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-runtime-features-schema.json
title: OCI Runtime Features Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-config-schema.json
title: OCI Image Config Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-manifest-schema.json
title: OCI Image Manifest Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-index-schema.json
title: OCI Image Index Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-layout-schema.json
title: OCI Image Layout Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-content-descriptor.json
title: OCI Image Content Descriptor Schema
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-defs.json
title: OCI Image Common Definitions
- type: JSONSchema
url: json-schema/oci-image-defs-descriptor.json
title: OCI Image Descriptor Definitions
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-state-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime State Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-features-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Features Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-linux-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-windows-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-solaris-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Solaris Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-freebsd-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-zos-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-config-vm-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-features-linux-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Features Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Common Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-linux-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-windows-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-vm-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-zos-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-runtime-defs-freebsd-structure.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-config-structure.json
title: OCI Image Config Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-manifest-structure.json
title: OCI Image Manifest Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-index-structure.json
title: OCI Image Index Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-layout-structure.json
title: OCI Image Layout Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-content-descriptor-structure.json
title: OCI Image Content Descriptor Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-defs-structure.json
title: OCI Image Common Definitions Structure
- type: JSONStructure
url: json-structure/oci-image-defs-descriptor-structure.json
title: OCI Image Descriptor Definitions Structure
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-state-example.json
title: OCI Runtime State Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-features-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Features Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-linux-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-windows-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-solaris-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Solaris Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-freebsd-example.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-zos-example.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-config-vm-example.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-features-linux-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Features Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Common Definitions Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-linux-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Linux Definitions Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-windows-example.json
title: OCI Runtime Windows Definitions Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-vm-example.json
title: OCI Runtime VM Definitions Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-zos-example.json
title: OCI Runtime z/OS Definitions Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-runtime-defs-freebsd-example.json
title: OCI Runtime FreeBSD Definitions Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-image-config-example.json
title: OCI Image Config Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-image-manifest-example.json
title: OCI Image Manifest Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-image-index-example.json
title: OCI Image Index Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-image-layout-example.json
title: OCI Image Layout Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-image-content-descriptor-example.json
title: OCI Image Content Descriptor Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-image-defs-example.json
title: OCI Image Common Definitions Example
- type: Example
url: examples/oci-image-defs-descriptor-example.json
title: OCI Image Descriptor Definitions Example
- type: JSON-LD
url: json-ld/youki-oci-runtime-context.jsonld
title: OCI Runtime JSON-LD Context
- type: JSON-LD
url: json-ld/youki-oci-image-context.jsonld
title: OCI Image JSON-LD Context
common:
- type: Documentation
url: https://youki-dev.github.io/youki/
- type: GitHubOrganization
url: https://github.com/youki-dev
- type: GitHubRepository
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki
- type: ReleaseNotes
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki/releases
- type: ChangeLog
url: https://github.com/youki-dev/youki/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md
- type: Support
url: https://youki-dev.github.io/youki/community/introduction.html
- type: Vocabulary
url: vocabulary/youki-vocabulary.yaml
title: Youki Vocabulary
- type: Features
data:
- name: OCI Runtime Spec Compliance
description: >-
Implements the Open Container Initiative (OCI) runtime
specification, allowing youki to run any OCI-compliant container
alongside or in place of runc.
- name: Memory-Safe Rust Implementation
description: >-
Written entirely in Rust to deliver memory safety and stronger
isolation guarantees than C-based container runtimes.
- name: Rootless Containers
description: >-
Enables running containers without root privileges to reduce host
attack surface for development and multi-tenant scenarios.
- name: Cgroups v1 and v2 Support
description: >-
Supports both legacy cgroups v1 and modern cgroups v2 hierarchies
for resource management on Linux.
- name: Seccomp Filtering
description: >-
Applies seccomp BPF filters to restrict syscalls available to
containers and harden the runtime surface.
- name: Systemd Integration
description: >-
Integrates with systemd as a cgroup manager and supports
systemd-managed container processes.
- name: Linux Namespaces and Capabilities
description: >-
Manages mount, UTS, IPC, user, PID, network, and cgroup namespaces
and supports capabilities such as CAP_BPF, CAP_PERFMON, and
CAP_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE.
- name: Performance
description: >-
Benchmarks show youki performing roughly twice as fast as runc for
container create-to-delete cycles.
- name: CNCF Sandbox Project
description: >-
Maintained as a Cloud Native Computing Foundation sandbox project
with open governance, public roadmap, and community contributors.
- type: UseCases
data:
- name: Drop-In runc Replacement
description: >-
Use youki as a drop-in replacement for runc in container engines to
gain memory safety and performance benefits with no workload
changes.
- name: Rootless Container Workflows
description: >-
Run containers as a non-root user for development, CI, or
multi-tenant environments where elevated privileges are not
desirable.
- name: Kubernetes Workloads via containerd
description: >-
Use youki under containerd to execute Kubernetes pods and
workloads in production clusters.
- name: Podman and Docker Container Execution
description: >-
Configure Podman or Docker to invoke youki as the low-level OCI
runtime for image execution.
- name: Container Runtime Research and Education
description: >-
Explore and prototype container runtime features in a memory-safe
codebase suitable for systems research, security analysis, and
teaching.
- type: Integrations
data:
- name: containerd
description: >-
containerd has passed end-to-end testing against youki, enabling
its use as the OCI runtime for Kubernetes and other workloads
orchestrated by containerd.
- name: Podman
description: >-
Podman can be configured to use youki as its OCI runtime for both
rootless and rootful container execution.
- name: Docker
description: >-
Docker can call youki as the low-level OCI runtime in place of
runc for compatible workloads via daemon.json configuration.
- name: Kubernetes
description: >-
Kubernetes clusters can run youki indirectly through container
runtimes such as containerd or CRI-O.
- name: crun
description: >-
youki sits alongside crun as a modern alternative to runc, focused
on memory-safe systems programming in Rust.
- name: systemd
description: >-
Integrates with systemd for cgroup management and lifecycle
control of container processes.
- name: oci-spec-rs
description: >-
Built on oci-spec-rs, the Rust implementation of the OCI Runtime,
Image, and Distribution specifications maintained by the same
organization.
- type: Solutions
data:
- name: Cloud Native Container Platforms
description: >-
Provides a CNCF sandbox container runtime for cloud-native
platforms looking to adopt a memory-safe OCI runtime under
containerd or CRI-O.
- name: Secure Multi-Tenant Hosts
description: >-
Pairs rootless containers, seccomp filtering, and Rust memory
safety to harden multi-tenant container hosts against runtime
exploits.
- name: Edge and Embedded Workloads
description: >-
A lightweight, high-performance runtime suitable for edge and
embedded deployments where resource use and predictable
performance matter.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
email: [email protected]