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Deploy from a Docker Image

If you already have a built image — from your CI pipeline, a public registry, or an internal one — Miabi can pull and run it directly. There is no build step; Miabi pulls the image and creates a release from it.

The deploy-from-image configuration screen

Configuring the image​

When creating an application, choose Docker image as the source.

  1. Image reference — enter the full reference, for example ghcr.io/miabi-io/guestbook:2.0.0 or docker.io/library/nginx.
  2. Tag or digest — pin the version you want to run (see below).
  3. Registry credentials — select stored credentials if the image is private.

Tags vs. digests​

You can reference an image by tag or by digest:

  • Tag (guestbook:2.0.0) — readable and convenient. A mutable tag like latest can change underneath you, so prefer version tags.
  • Digest (guestbook@sha256:…) — pins an exact, immutable image. Best for reproducible deploys where you must guarantee the bytes never change.
tip

For production, pin a specific tag or a digest rather than latest. This makes rollbacks meaningful and prevents surprise updates on the next deploy.

Registry authentication​

For private images, add container-registry credentials to the workspace. These are stored encrypted at rest (see Encryption) and can be reused across applications. Miabi supports any standard Docker registry, including Docker Hub, GitHub Container Registry, GitLab Registry, and self-hosted registries.

Updating the image​

To ship a new version, update the tag or digest in the application's source settings and redeploy. Miabi pulls the new image and rolls it out with a zero-downtime rolling switch, just like a Git deploy. Each pull becomes a new release you can roll back to.

When to use image vs. Git​

Use a Docker image when…Use Git when…
Your CI already builds and pushes imagesYou want Miabi to build from source
You run a published, off-the-shelf imageYou don't maintain a build pipeline
You need exact, digest-pinned reproducibilityYou want push-to-deploy from a branch
You build elsewhere and only deploy in MiabiYou prefer buildpacks with no Dockerfile

For curated off-the-shelf software, also consider the Marketplace, which wraps common images into one-click templates.