wagoodman

    wagoodman/dive

    A tool for exploring each layer in a docker image

    cli
    devops
    docker
    docker-image
    explorer
    inspector
    tui
    Go
    MIT
    52.8K stars
    1.9K forks
    52.8K watching
    Updated 2/27/2026
    View on GitHub
    Backblaze Advertisement

    Loading star history...

    Health Score

    75

    Weekly Growth

    +0

    +0.0% this week

    Contributors

    1

    Total contributors

    Open Issues

    185

    Generated Insights

    About dive

    dive

    GitHub release Validations Go Report Card License: MIT Donate

    A tool for exploring a Docker image, layer contents, and discovering ways to shrink the size of your Docker/OCI image.

    Image

    To analyze a Docker image simply run dive with an image tag/id/digest:

    dive <your-image-tag>
    

    or you can dive with Docker directly:

    alias dive="docker run -ti --rm  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock docker.io/wagoodman/dive"
    dive <your-image-tag>
    
    # for example
    dive nginx:latest
    

    or if you want to build your image then jump straight into analyzing it:

    dive build -t <some-tag> .
    

    Building on macOS (supporting only the Docker container engine):

    docker run --rm -it \
          -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
          -v  "$(pwd)":"$(pwd)" \
          -w "$(pwd)" \
          -v "$HOME/.dive.yaml":"$HOME/.dive.yaml" \
          docker.io/wagoodman/dive:latest build -t <some-tag> .
    

    Additionally you can run this in your CI pipeline to ensure you're keeping wasted space to a minimum (this skips the UI):

    CI=true dive <your-image>
    

    Image

    This is beta quality! Feel free to submit an issue if you want a new feature or find a bug :)

    Basic Features

    Show Docker image contents broken down by layer

    As you select a layer on the left, you are shown the contents of that layer combined with all previous layers on the right. Also, you can fully explore the file tree with the arrow keys.

    Indicate what's changed in each layer

    Files that have changed, been modified, added, or removed are indicated in the file tree. This can be adjusted to show changes for a specific layer, or aggregated changes up to this layer.

    Estimate "image efficiency"

    The lower left pane shows basic layer info and an experimental metric that will guess how much wasted space your image contains. This might be from duplicating files across layers, moving files across layers, or not fully removing files. Both a percentage "score" and total wasted file space is provided.

    Quick build/analysis cycles

    You can build a Docker image and do an immediate analysis with one command: dive build -t some-tag .

    You only need to replace your docker build command with the same dive build command.

    CI Integration

    Analyze an image and get a pass/fail result based on the image efficiency and wasted space. Simply set CI=true in the environment when invoking any valid dive command.

    Multiple Image Sources and Container Engines Supported

    With the --source option, you can select where to fetch the container image from:

    dive <your-image> --source <source>
    

    or

    dive <source>://<your-image>
    

    With valid source options as such:

    • docker: Docker engine (the default option)
    • docker-archive: A Docker Tar Archive from disk
    • podman: Podman engine (linux only)

    Installation

    Ubuntu/Debian

    Using debs:

    DIVE_VERSION=$(curl -sL "https://api.github.com/repos/wagoodman/dive/releases/latest" | grep '"tag_name":' | sed -E 's/.*"v([^"]+)".*/\1/')
    curl -fOL "https://github.com/wagoodman/dive/releases/download/v${DIVE_VERSION}/dive_${DIVE_VERSION}_linux_amd64.deb"
    sudo apt install ./dive_${DIVE_VERSION}_linux_amd64.deb
    

    Using snap:

    sudo snap install docker
    sudo snap install dive
    sudo snap connect dive:docker-executables docker:docker-executables
    sudo snap connect dive:docker-daemon docker:docker-daemon
    

    [!CAUTION] The Snap method is not recommended if you installed Docker via apt-get, since it might break your existing Docker daemon.

    See also: https://github.com/wagoodman/dive/issues/546

    RHEL/Centos

    DIVE_VERSION=$(curl -sL "https://api.github.com/repos/wagoodman/dive/releases/latest" | grep '"tag_name":' | sed -E 's/.*"v([^"]+)".*/\1/')
    curl -fOL "https://github.com/wagoodman/dive/releases/download/v${DIVE_VERSION}/dive_${DIVE_VERSION}_linux_amd64.rpm"
    rpm -i dive_${DIVE_VERSION}_linux_amd64.rpm
    

    Arch Linux

    Available in the extra repository and can be installed via pacman:

    pacman -S dive
    

    Mac

    If you use Homebrew:

    brew install dive
    

    If you use MacPorts:

    sudo port install dive
    

    Or download the latest Darwin build from the releases page.

    Windows

    If you use Chocolatey

    choco install dive
    

    If you use scoop

    scoop install main/dive
    

    If you use winget:

    winget install --id wagoodman.dive
    

    Or download the latest Windows build from the releases page.

    Go tools Requires Go version 1.10 or higher.

    go install github.com/wagoodman/dive@latest
    

    Note: installing in this way you will not see a proper version when running dive -v.

    Nix/NixOS

    On NixOS:

    nix-env -iA nixos.dive
    

    On non-NixOS (Linux, Mac)

    nix-env -iA nixpkgs.dive
    

    X-CMD

    x-cmd is a toolbox for Posix Shell, offering a lightweight package manager built using shell and awk.

    x env use dive
    

    Docker

    docker pull docker.io/wagoodman/dive
    # or alternatively
    docker pull ghcr.io/wagoodman/dive
    

    When running you'll need to include the Docker socket file:

    docker run --rm -it \
        -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
        docker.io/wagoodman/dive:latest <dive arguments...>
    

    Docker for Windows (showing PowerShell compatible line breaks; collapse to a single line for Command Prompt compatibility)

    docker run --rm -it `
        -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock `
        docker.io/wagoodman/dive:latest <dive arguments...>
    

    Note: depending on the version of docker you are running locally you may need to specify the docker API version as an environment variable:

       DOCKER_API_VERSION=1.37 dive ...
    

    or if you are running with a docker image:

    docker run --rm -it \
        -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
        -e DOCKER_API_VERSION=1.37 \
        docker.io/wagoodman/dive:latest <dive arguments...>
    

    if you are using an alternative runtime (Colima etc) then you may need to specify the docker host as an environment variable in order to pull local images:

       export DOCKER_HOST=$(docker context inspect -f '{{ .Endpoints.docker.Host }}')
    

    CI Integration

    When running dive with the environment variable CI=true then the dive UI will be bypassed and will instead analyze your docker image, giving it a pass/fail indication via return code. Currently there are three metrics supported via a .dive-ci file that you can put at the root of your repo:

    rules:
      # If the efficiency is measured below X%, mark as failed.
      # Expressed as a ratio between 0-1.
      lowestEfficiency: 0.95
    
      # If the amount of wasted space is at least X or larger than X, mark as failed.
      # Expressed in B, KB, MB, and GB.
      highestWastedBytes: 20MB
    
      # If the amount of wasted space makes up for X% or more of the image, mark as failed.
      # Note: the base image layer is NOT included in the total image size.
      # Expressed as a ratio between 0-1; fails if the threshold is met or crossed.
      highestUserWastedPercent: 0.20
    

    You can override the CI config path with the --ci-config option.

    KeyBindings

    Key BindingDescription
    Ctrl + C or QExit
    TabSwitch between the layer and filetree views
    Ctrl + FFilter files
    ESCClose filter files
    PageUp or UScroll up a page
    PageDown or DScroll down a page
    Up or KMove up one line within a page
    Down or JMove down one line within a page
    Ctrl + ALayer view: see aggregated image modifications
    Ctrl + LLayer view: see current layer modifications
    SpaceFiletree view: collapse/uncollapse a directory
    Ctrl + SpaceFiletree view: collapse/uncollapse all directories
    Ctrl + AFiletree view: show/hide added files
    Ctrl + RFiletree view: show/hide removed files
    Ctrl + MFiletree view: show/hide modified files
    Ctrl + UFiletree view: show/hide unmodified files
    Ctrl + BFiletree view: show/hide file attributes
    PageUp or UFiletree view: scroll up a page
    PageDown or DFiletree view: scroll down a page

    UI Configuration

    No configuration is necessary, however, you can create a config file and override values:

    # supported options are "docker" and "podman"
    container-engine: docker
    # continue with analysis even if there are errors parsing the image archive
    ignore-errors: false
    log:
      enabled: true
      path: ./dive.log
      level: info
    
    # Note: you can specify multiple bindings by separating values with a comma.
    # Note: UI hinting is derived from the first binding
    keybinding:
      # Global bindings
      quit: ctrl+c
      toggle-view: tab
      filter-files: ctrl+f, ctrl+slash
      close-filter-files: esc
      up: up,k
      down: down,j
      left: left,h
      right: right,l
    
      # Layer view specific bindings
      compare-all: ctrl+a
      compare-layer: ctrl+l
    
      # File view specific bindings
      toggle-collapse-dir: space
      toggle-collapse-all-dir: ctrl+space
      toggle-added-files: ctrl+a
      toggle-removed-files: ctrl+r
      toggle-modified-files: ctrl+m
      toggle-unmodified-files: ctrl+u
      toggle-filetree-attributes: ctrl+b
      page-up: pgup,u
      page-down: pgdn,d
    
    diff:
      # You can change the default files shown in the filetree (right pane). All diff types are shown by default.
      hide:
        - added
        - removed
        - modified
        - unmodified
    
    filetree:
      # The default directory-collapse state
      collapse-dir: false
    
      # The percentage of screen width the filetree should take on the screen (must be >0 and <1)
      pane-width: 0.5
    
      # Show the file attributes next to the filetree
      show-attributes: true
    
    layer:
      # Enable showing all changes from this layer and every previous layer
      show-aggregated-changes: false
    
    

    dive will search for configs in the following locations:

    • $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dive/*.yaml
    • $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/dive/*.yaml
    • ~/.config/dive/*.yaml
    • ~/.dive.yaml

    .yml can be used instead of .yaml if desired.

    Discover Repositories

    Search across tracked repositories by name or description