docker manifest Command Reference

Create and push multi-architecture manifest lists.

docker manifest builds a manifest list (a fat manifest) that points one tag at several per-architecture images, so docker pull selects the right one automatically. It is an experimental-flagged command; buildx --platform with --push is the more common path, but manifest is useful when arch images are built separately.

Common subcommands

docker manifest create LIST IMG... - create a list referencing per-arch images
docker manifest annotate - set arch/os on an entry
docker manifest inspect IMAGE - show the manifest or list
docker manifest push LIST - push the list to the registry
Requires DOCKER_CLI_EXPERIMENTAL=enabled on older CLIs

Example

shell

docker manifest create myorg/app:1.0 \
  myorg/app:1.0-amd64 myorg/app:1.0-arm64
docker manifest annotate myorg/app:1.0 myorg/app:1.0-arm64 --arch arm64
docker manifest push myorg/app:1.0

In CI

When separate jobs build per-architecture images and push them with arch-suffixed tags, a final job stitches them into one tag with docker manifest create and push. If you build all platforms in one job, buildx build --platform ... --push produces the manifest list directly and you do not need this command.

Key takeaways

A manifest list maps one tag to multiple per-architecture images.
Use it to merge separately built arch images into a single multi-arch tag.
buildx --platform --push creates the list for you when building all arches at once.