Podman Knowledge Patch

Claude Opus 4.6 knows Podman through 4.x / early 5.x. This skill provides features from Podman 5.6 (2024-08-15) through 5.8 (2025-02-12).

Index

Topic	Reference	Key features
Quadlet	references/quadlet.md	CLI management, multi-file install, .artifact type, new keys, REST API
CLI enhancements	references/cli-enhancements.md	--creds/--cert-dir, --return-on-first, --no-session, --ulimit update, kube play multi-file
OCI artifacts	references/artifacts.md	Stable podman artifact commands, REST API, podman inspect artifacts
Infrastructure	references/infrastructure.md	TLS/mTLS remote, BoltDB→SQLite migration, --swap, Rosetta disabled, compat API changes

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Quick Reference

Quadlet management commands (5.6+)

podman quadlet install myapp.container # install for current user
podman quadlet list                    # list installed Quadlets
podman quadlet print myapp.container   # print file contents
podman quadlet rm myapp.container      # remove a Quadlet

Not available with remote client.

Multi-file Quadlet install (5.8+)

Single file with multiple units separated by ---:

# FileName=app.container
[Container]
Image=myapp:latest

---
# FileName=db.container
[Container]
Image=postgres:16

podman quadlet install combined.quadlet

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New Quadlet keys by version

Version	File type	Key	Purpose
5.7	.container	HttpProxy	Control HTTP proxy forwarding into container
5.7	.pod	StopTimeout	Configure pod stop timeout
5.7	.build	BuildArg	Specify build arguments
5.7	.build	IgnoreFile	Specify ignore file
5.7	.kube	(multi-YAML)	Multiple YAML files in single .kube file
5.8	.container	AppArmor	Set container's AppArmor profile

---

OCI artifacts (stable since 5.6)

podman artifact pull oci-registry.example/myartifact:v1
podman artifact ls
podman artifact inspect myartifact
podman artifact push myartifact docker://registry/repo:tag
podman artifact rm myartifact
podman artifact add myartifact file1.tar file2.tar
podman artifact extract myartifact

Available via remote client. podman inspect can also inspect artifacts (5.7+).

Artifact REST API (5.6+)

Method	Endpoint	Purpose
GET	/libpod/artifacts/json	List artifacts
GET	/libpod/artifacts/{name}/json	Inspect artifact
POST	/libpod/artifacts/pull	Pull artifact
DELETE	/libpod/artifacts/{name}	Remove artifact
POST	/libpod/artifacts/add	Add artifact from tar
POST	/libpod/artifacts/{name}/push	Push to registry
GET	/libpod/artifacts/{name}/extract	Get artifact contents

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Quadlet REST API (5.8+)

Method	Endpoint	Purpose
POST	/libpod/quadlets	Install Quadlets
GET	/libpod/quadlets/{name}/file	Print Quadlet file contents
GET	/libpod/quadlets/{name}/exists	Check if Quadlet exists
DELETE	/libpod/quadlets	Remove multiple Quadlets
DELETE	/libpod/quadlets/{name}	Remove a single Quadlet

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Inline registry auth (5.7+)

podman run --creds user:pass --cert-dir /path/to/certs docker.io/myimage

Multi-file kube play (5.7+)

podman kube play app.yaml db.yaml
podman kube down app.yaml db.yaml
podman kube play --no-pod-prefix app.yaml # don't prefix container names with pod name

Wait for any container (5.7+)

podman wait --return-on-first --condition=exited ctr1 ctr2

Fast exec without session tracking (5.8+)

podman exec --no-session mycontainer ls /app

Update ulimits on running container (5.8+)

podman update --ulimit nofile=65536:65536 mycontainer

Volume ownership (5.6+)

podman volume create --uid 1000 --gid 1000 myvolume

VM swap (5.6+)

podman machine init --swap 2048   # size in megabytes

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TLS/mTLS for remote connections (5.7+)

Remote client and podman system service support TLS and mTLS encryption, including client certificate authentication. podman system connection add can create TLS-encrypted TCP connections.

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BoltDB → SQLite migration

• 5.6: Deprecation warning added for BoltDB users
• 5.7: Warnings visible by default
• 5.8: Auto-migrates BoltDB to SQLite on reboot. Manual migration:

podman system migrate --migrate-db

BoltDB removal planned for Podman 6.0.

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Breaking changes

Version	Change
5.6	Rosetta disabled by default in podman machine VMs (kernel compatibility issues)
5.7	Compat Image Inspect API: ContainerConfig field removed (use Config instead, matches Docker v1.45)

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Reference Files

File	Contents
quadlet.md	CLI management commands, multi-file install, .artifact file type, new keys (HttpProxy, StopTimeout, BuildArg, IgnoreFile, AppArmor), REST API endpoints
cli-enhancements.md	--creds/--cert-dir, kube play multi-file + --no-pod-prefix, --return-on-first, --no-session, --ulimit update, --uid/--gid volumes, --swap
artifacts.md	Stable artifact commands, REST API endpoints, podman inspect artifact support
infrastructure.md	TLS/mTLS remote connections, BoltDB deprecation and auto-migration, Rosetta disabled, compat API breaking change