Retain rollback images without deleting active environment digests
Registry cleanup removes an image still running in a quiet environment because its tag is old.
- Focused work estimate
- 2h 30m + prerequisites
- Priority in the scenario
- Medium
- Engineering practice
- Retention · Resource safety
Estimated field mix
- Platform engineering60%
- Storage systems40%
Field percentages are editorial estimates of the ticket's engineering focus. They total 100%; they are not measured time, proficiency scores, or ownership evidence.
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Project context
A fictional reporting API is rebuilt separately for staging and production. Different dependency resolutions and mutable tags make incident rollback unreliable.
Setup prerequisites
- Create a tiny local HTTP service and nonprivileged image build.
- Use synthetic registries or provider fixtures; no production deployment.
Preceding work
Complete these dependencies, or supply their agreed outputs before taking this ticket.
- AIMAGE-101 · Exclude local credentials and bulky artifacts from the image context
- AIMAGE-102 · Pin service build inputs to immutable identities
- AIMAGE-103 · Run the service image as an unprivileged user with a read-only root
- AIMAGE-104 · Record image provenance without embedding build credentials
- AIMAGE-105 · Promote the tested digest instead of rebuilding for each environment
- AIMAGE-106 · Stop promotion when required security scan results are missing
- AIMAGE-107 · Make artifact promotion idempotent across lost CI responses
Acceptance criteria
- Retention protects every active and explicitly retained rollback digest.
- Compute deletion candidates before executing cleanup.
- Recheck references immediately before removal.
Implementation constraints
- Use exact digest references rather than tag age alone.
Verification to include
- Expire an unreferenced synthetic image.
- Add an active reference after planning and verify deletion is skipped.
Deliverables
- Digest retention planner and race test
Rollout and recovery
Dry-run retention first; stop cleanup if environment inventory is unavailable.
Value of the work
For the engineer: Practice artifact identity, least privilege and reproducible delivery.
For the team: Review whether deployed bytes can be traced and rolled back reliably.
Evidence boundaries
Outcome Evidence: Tests, patches, and runbooks are requested deliverables. They become Outcome Evidence only through a qualified Mission and immutable Evidence IDs.
Ownership Evidence: Independent adaptation must be observed under a declared verification policy and cite immutable Evidence IDs. Completing a planning ticket establishes no Ownership Evidence.