How to Apply an ECR Lifecycle Policy From CI

An ECR lifecycle policy expires old images automatically so the registry does not grow unbounded.

Write the policy JSON and apply it with aws ecr put-lifecycle-policy. Rules can expire untagged images and cap the count of tagged images.

Steps

• Author a lifecycle policy JSON with expiration rules.
• Apply it with aws ecr put-lifecycle-policy.
• Rerun in CI so policy changes are version-controlled.

Policy JSON

{
  "rules": [
    {
      "rulePriority": 1,
      "description": "Expire untagged after 14 days",
      "selection": {
        "tagStatus": "untagged",
        "countType": "sinceImagePushed",
        "countUnit": "days",
        "countNumber": 14
      },
      "action": { "type": "expire" }
    }
  ]
}

Terminal

aws ecr put-lifecycle-policy \
  --repository-name myapp \
  --lifecycle-policy-text file://lifecycle-policy.json

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