January 2, 2026
Another day, another CLI showdown
List, inspect and explore OCI container images, their layers and contents
New 'lix' lets you peek inside containers — fans cheer, veterans yell 'we already have this'
TLDR: lix is a new tool that lets you see and compare the files inside container images without running them. Comments split between “we already have dive, crane, and Skopeo” and folks who want a simpler, friendlier way to peek inside—useful for audits, debugging, and quick checks.
Meet lix, a new command-line gadget that lets you peek inside container images—like zip files for apps—without running them. It lists every file, shows build details, reads configuration text, and compares versions to spot changes. It plugs into Docker or Podman you already have. Handy, right? The crowd noticed—then split. The first wave dropped the inevitable “we already have this” and linked dive, the popular interactive viewer. Another brought up Google’s crane and Red Hat’s Skopeo as the standard toolkit.
And that lit the fuse: do we need yet another tool, or is lix refreshing because it focuses on three moves—list, cat, compare? A Skopeo fan admitted overlap but said Skopeo leans toward image management and syncing, not casual exploring. One commenter warned some alternatives feel “too low‑level” for everyday developers—exactly the gap lix aims to fill. Jokes piled up: “Not another CLI,” “how many ways can we peel a container layer,” and a groan about Docker sockets. Verdict so far: skeptics say stick with the old guard; curious devs like a cleaner, quicker peek. If you just want to read the dang file inside an image, lix might be the new crowd pleaser.
Key Points
- •lix is a CLI tool to explore OCI container images without running them, reading from local runtimes or remote registries.
- •It can inspect image metadata, list files in the merged overlay or specific layers, and read file contents directly from images.
- •The tool supports pattern filtering (doublestar glob) for file listing and searches layers top-down to reflect final file state.
- •A compare command analyzes differences between two tags, skipping shared base layers to reduce I/O and speed comparisons.
- •lix integrates with Docker, Podman, and containerd via daemon sockets, uses DOCKER_HOST for configuration, and defaults to if-not-present pull policy to avoid rate limits.