Buildah Has a Free API — Build OCI Container Images Without Docker

Buildah builds OCI-compatible container images without requiring a Docker daemon . It's rootless, daemonless, and perfect for CI/CD pipelines where you can't run Docker-in-Docker. Free, open source, by Red Hat. Used in OpenShift, Tekton, and GitHub Actions. Why Use Buildah? No daemon — doesn't need Docker daemon running Rootless — build images as non-root user Dockerfile compatible — use existing Dockerfiles Fine-grained control — build images step by step with CLI OCI standard — produces images compatible with Docker, Podman, K8s CI/CD friendly — no Docker-in-Docker needed Quick Setup 1. Install # Ubuntu/Debian sudo apt install buildah # Fedora/RHEL sudo dnf install buildah # macOS (via Podman machine) brew install podman podman machine init && podman machine start 2. Build from Dockerfile # Same as docker build buildah build -t my-app:v1 . # With build args buildah build --build-arg NODE_ENV = production -t my-app:prod . # Multi-stage builds work too buildah build -f Dockerfile.multi