Install ko with Homebrew, apk, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, scoop

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• ko

Project history

The project grew out of Google experience building Docker and Kubernetes support for Bazel. Its README describes ko as a simple, fast container image builder that effectively runs `go build` locally, then packages the resulting binary into an image without requiring Docker.

By 2022, the project had moved into the ko-build GitHub organization and the ko.build documentation domain. A 2022-08-19 migration issue laid out the repository move from google/ko to github.com/ko-build, the ko.build vanity import path, image-name changes, and a Slack channel rename. On 2022-10-11, Google announced that it had submitted ko for CNCF Sandbox consideration.

Adoption history

ko's adoption followed the rise of Go-based cloud-native services that can ship as mostly static binaries. The Google Open Source announcement described growing use by open source and enterprise teams and integration into third-party CI/CD tools.

Package-manager adoption is useful because ko is often installed in developer shells, GitHub Actions, release jobs, and Kubernetes workflows. Its companion setup-ko action made it easy to bootstrap the CLI in CI, while Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix, Arch, Alpine, and Scoop packaging made it available outside a single vendor ecosystem.

How it is used

The common workflow is `ko build` or `ko resolve`: build Go packages into images, push them to a registry, and optionally rewrite Kubernetes YAML with the produced image references. The docs emphasize no Docker daemon requirement, multi-platform images, SBOM generation, Kubernetes integration, build cache support, and registry authentication through ko login or surrounding CI credentials.

It is particularly attractive for Go services with few operating-system package dependencies. That constraint is part of the tool's appeal: it turns the boring case of a static Go binary into a very short path from source to signed or traceable container artifact.

Why package nerds care

ko is the package-index shorthand for a whole cloud-native philosophy: build the thing the language already knows how to build, then wrap it as an OCI image with minimal ceremony. It competes less with Docker itself than with Dockerfile boilerplate, bespoke CI shell scripts, and build-system plugins.

For maintainers, it is also a clean example of a single-purpose CLI whose value comes from integration points: Go, registries, Kubernetes, SBOMs, GitHub Actions, and module import paths.

Timeline

• 2022-02-17: ko v0.10.0 was published; ko docs note that before v0.10 the command was called `ko publish`.
• 2022-08-19: The project opened a migration issue for moving from google/ko to github.com/ko-build and ko.build.
• 2022-08-24: ko v0.12.0 was published during the repository/domain migration period.
• 2022-10-11: Google announced that ko had been submitted for CNCF Sandbox consideration.

Related projects

• ko is related to go-containerregistry, setup-ko, Skaffold's ko builder integration, Docker/BuildKit workflows, Kubernetes deployment tooling, and Bazel container rules that influenced the original design.

Sources

• https://api.github.com/repos/ko-build/ko/releases
• https://github.com/ko-build/ko
• https://github.com/ko-build/ko/issues/791
• https://ko.build/
• https://ko.build/get-started/
• https://opensource.googleblog.com/2022/10/ko-applies-to-become-a-cncf-sandbox-project.html