From Fedora Project Wiki
Fedora Image Mode (naming tbd)
Matrix #bootc:fedoraproject.org(other clients|?)

Executive Summary

The Diagnosis

Fedora's current immutable/atomic ecosystem is fragmented across multiple subprojects (CoreOS, IoT, Atomic Desktops). This fragmentation leads to confusing documentation, split community focus, and duplicated engineering effort. As a result, OCI artifacts are not considered first-class citizens in the Fedora ecosystem.

Despite prior exploration, Fedora has not yet reached true production capacity for the bootc toolchain. The previous initiative was broad and exploratory, and now a focused effort is needed to deliver a concrete, sustainable production system.

The Guiding Policy

We should converge and coordinate across multiple pathways:

  • Converge on a common core: Stop the fragmentation by establishing official, shared base images as the single source of truth. All subprojects will consume these images, shifting their focus to user-facing customization rather than base OS maintenance.
  • Standardize the experience: Unify the user experience around the bootc toolchain with OCI containers as the artifact.
  • Coordinate: Act as a temporary coordination hub. Do not own code but instead use a cross-functional position to identify blockers and ensure that permanent, sustainable owners are in place before the initiative dissolves.
  • Innovate in parallel: De-risk the adoption of the new Konflux CI/CD system by treating it as an explicit learning and testing ground, allowing for rapid experimentation in a sandbox space without jeopardizing Fedora's existing production activities.

Coherent Actions

  • Build the Foundation: Formally establish the development (by F44) and production (by F45) pipelines for delivering the official base images.
  • Enforce Migration: Define and enforce the timeline for all subprojects (CoreOS, IoT, etc.) to adopt these base images, targeting beta by F44 and production by F45.
  • Define the Future State: Actively identify and eliminate duplicate work. Deliver a formal recommendation for a new SIG (or similar structure) to own the base images and maintain the toolchain and artifact storage long-term.
  • Drive Upstream Improvements: Systematically collect, track, and share all blockers, feature requests, and bug reports for both the upstream Konflux and the upstream bootc projects to ensure the tools meet Fedora's production needs.

Details

Vision

To establish bootc-derived OCI artifacts as first-class citizens in the Fedora ecosystem, with all atomic (immutable) operating system variants delivered as layered bootable OCI artifacts, built using the upstream bootc toolchain from a common sustainable core, supported by a modern unified developer experience, and shipped on a rolling basis.

Mission

Serve as a time-boxed coordination body to enable the creation of a production-ready, sustainable pipeline using bootc and Konflux for building, delivering, and hosting official OCI artifacts for all of Fedora. Facilitate discussions, remove blockers, and ensure sustainable solutions across the project without directly owning any code or system by bringing together stakeholders from across Fedora.

Objectives

  • Production-ready official base images as first-class citizens by the Fedora 45 release
  • Subprojects delivering production artifacts based on these base images by Fedora 45
  • A sustainable CI pipeline using Konflux for the bootc toolchain and OCI images
  • A testbed/experimentation space with a fast iteration process for exploring new technologies for Fedora
  • A defined process for initiatives that do not own code moving forward
  • A defined process using the experimentation space to deliver infrastructure changes for Fedora that does not stress current infrastructure or require split attention
  • Defragmentation of related subprojects
  • Sustainability of the end products (base images, artifacts, etc.) and ongoing maintenance without stressing current deliverables and pipelines
  • Community growth through the attraction of new contributors or absent contributors interested in the intersection of cloud native technologies and Fedora

Strategy

  • Toolchain Standardization: Leverage the upstream bootc tooling system as the standard method to generate OCI artifacts.
  • Centralized Coordination: Act as a temporary, cross-functional entity that negotiates solutions and identifies blockers between groups.
  • Base Image Abstraction: Move subprojects (CoreOS, IoT, etc.) to a model where they consume official, shared base images rather than building their own, allowing them to focus on use-case-specific layering.
  • Experimental Sandbox: Create a "space adjacent to Fedora" (likened to an "experimentation SIG" ) where participants can iterate quickly on new ideas like Konflux integration without disrupting stable Fedora processes.
  • Community Partnership: Partner with downstream projects like Universal Blue and align with parallel work on Konflux from CentOS and RHEL.

Action Plan (Key Inputs, Outputs, and Milestones)

Inputs

People & Governance

  • Lead: User:nimbinatus
  • Executive Sponsor: User:Jspaleta
  • Representatives from groups like Atomic Desktops, CoreOS, IoT, Containers, Infrastructure, Release Engineering, etc. - Exact people and list TBD based on the forum thread responses.

Technology

  • Upstream bootc project
  • Upstream Konflux project
  • Hardware to run the pipelines
  • An image hosting hub space (e.g., Quay)

Collaboration spaces

  • Fedora Matrix room for general discussion - preexisting
  • Weekly initiative meeting slot in meeting 1 on Matrix - preexisting
  • GitLab project boards - preexisting
  • Preexisting spaces where stakeholders already host their work

External & Community

  • Input and inspiration from community projects like Universal Blue, BlueBuild, bootc, Konflux
  • Alignment with parallel work being done in the CentOS and RHEL ecosystems.

Outputs

  • Official, production-ready Fedora base images
  • Production-ready subproject artifacts (CoreOS, IoT, etc.) derived from those base images
  • A sustainable, documented Konflux pipeline for generating OCI artifacts
  • A designated space to host the base images and other artifacts
  • (Stretch) A potential universal installer for bootc switch
  • A formal recommendation for a new, permanent SIG or structure to own and maintain the base images and extensions, with community members identified to kick off
  • A collection of feature requests, bug reports, and experimental results for upstream bootc and Konflux.
  • A proposal or framework for an "experimentation" or "sandbox" SIG within Fedora, modeled after concepts from CNCF or Kubernetes.

Milestones

  • A clean development pipeline (44)
  • A sustainable image hosting service (44)
  • Beta/nightly rolling releases of base images (44)
  • Beta/nightly rolling releases of subproject artifacts (44)
  • Fully supported production pipeline (45)
  • Production (rolling) base images (45)
  • Production quality (rolling) artifacts from subprojects (45)
  • Universal installer (stretch, 45)
  • SIG creation (post-45)
  • Permanent owners identified with clear documentation (post-45)
  • Dissolved initiative with retro and documentation published (post-45)

Stakeholders

Teams

Base Images

Naming

Pipeline

Relevant Links

Wiki & Gitlab Links

Retrieved from "https://fedoraproject.org/w/index.php?title=Initiatives/Image_Mode,_Phase_2_(2026)&oldid=762270"