Azure Container Registry SDK for Python

Manage container images, artifacts, and repositories in Azure Container Registry.

Installation

pip install azure-containerregistry

Environment Variables

AZURE_CONTAINERREGISTRY_ENDPOINT=https://<registry-name>.azurecr.io

Authentication

Entra ID (Recommended)

from azure.containerregistry import ContainerRegistryClient from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

client = ContainerRegistryClient( endpoint=os.environ["AZURE_CONTAINERREGISTRY_ENDPOINT"], credential=DefaultAzureCredential() )

Anonymous Access (Public Registry)

from azure.containerregistry import ContainerRegistryClient

client = ContainerRegistryClient( endpoint="https://mcr.microsoft.com", credential=None, audience="https://mcr.microsoft.com" )

List Repositories

client = ContainerRegistryClient(endpoint, DefaultAzureCredential())

for repository in client.list_repository_names(): print(repository)

Repository Operations

Get Repository Properties

properties = client.get_repository_properties("my-image") print(f"Created: {properties.created_on}") print(f"Modified: {properties.last_updated_on}") print(f"Manifests: {properties.manifest_count}") print(f"Tags: {properties.tag_count}")

Update Repository Properties

from azure.containerregistry import RepositoryProperties

client.update_repository_properties( "my-image", properties=RepositoryProperties( can_delete=False, can_write=False ) )

Delete Repository

client.delete_repository("my-image")

List Tags

for tag in client.list_tag_properties("my-image"): print(f"{tag.name}: {tag.created_on}")

Filter by Order

from azure.containerregistry import ArtifactTagOrder

Most recent first

for tag in client.list_tag_properties( "my-image", order_by=ArtifactTagOrder.LAST_UPDATED_ON_DESCENDING ): print(f"{tag.name}: {tag.last_updated_on}")

Manifest Operations

List Manifests

from azure.containerregistry import ArtifactManifestOrder

for manifest in client.list_manifest_properties( "my-image", order_by=ArtifactManifestOrder.LAST_UPDATED_ON_DESCENDING ): print(f"Digest: {manifest.digest}") print(f"Tags: {manifest.tags}") print(f"Size: {manifest.size_in_bytes}")

Get Manifest Properties

manifest = client.get_manifest_properties("my-image", "latest") print(f"Digest: {manifest.digest}") print(f"Architecture: {manifest.architecture}") print(f"OS: {manifest.operating_system}")

Update Manifest Properties

from azure.containerregistry import ArtifactManifestProperties

client.update_manifest_properties( "my-image", "latest", properties=ArtifactManifestProperties( can_delete=False, can_write=False ) )

Delete Manifest

Delete by digest

client.delete_manifest("my-image", "sha256:abc123...")

Delete by tag

manifest = client.get_manifest_properties("my-image", "old-tag") client.delete_manifest("my-image", manifest.digest)

Tag Operations

Get Tag Properties

tag = client.get_tag_properties("my-image", "latest") print(f"Digest: {tag.digest}") print(f"Created: {tag.created_on}")

Delete Tag

client.delete_tag("my-image", "old-tag")

Upload and Download Artifacts

from azure.containerregistry import ContainerRegistryClient

client = ContainerRegistryClient(endpoint, DefaultAzureCredential())

Download manifest

manifest = client.download_manifest("my-image", "latest") print(f"Media type: {manifest.media_type}") print(f"Digest: {manifest.digest}")

Download blob

blob = client.download_blob("my-image", "sha256:abc123...") with open("layer.tar.gz", "wb") as f: for chunk in blob: f.write(chunk)

Async Client

from azure.containerregistry.aio import ContainerRegistryClient from azure.identity.aio import DefaultAzureCredential

async def list_repos(): credential = DefaultAzureCredential() client = ContainerRegistryClient(endpoint, credential)

async for repo in client.list_repository_names():
    print(repo)

await client.close()
await credential.close()

Clean Up Old Images

from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone

cutoff = datetime.now(timezone.utc) - timedelta(days=30)

for manifest in client.list_manifest_properties("my-image"): if manifest.last_updated_on < cutoff and not manifest.tags: print(f"Deleting {manifest.digest}") client.delete_manifest("my-image", manifest.digest)

Client Operations

Operation Description

list_repository_names

List all repositories

get_repository_properties

Get repository metadata

delete_repository

Delete repository and all images

list_tag_properties

List tags in repository

get_tag_properties

Get tag metadata

delete_tag

Delete specific tag

list_manifest_properties

List manifests in repository

get_manifest_properties

Get manifest metadata

delete_manifest

Delete manifest by digest

download_manifest

Download manifest content

download_blob

Download layer blob

Best Practices

• Use Entra ID for authentication in production

• Delete by digest not tag to avoid orphaned images

• Lock production images with can_delete=False

• Clean up untagged manifests regularly

• Use async client for high-throughput operations

• Order by last_updated to find recent/old images

• Check manifest.tags before deleting to avoid removing tagged images