explaingit

slimtoolkit/slim

★ 23,250GoAudience · ops devopsComplexity · 3/5MaintainedLicenseSetup · moderate

TLDR

Automatically shrinks Docker container images by 30x or more by analyzing what your app actually uses at runtime and removing everything else.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Slim))
    What it does
      Shrinks container images
      Analyzes runtime usage
      Removes unused files
    How it works
      Runs container temporarily
      Observes file access
      Builds minimal image
    Use cases
      Reduce deployment costs
      Speed up image transfer
      Lower security risk
    Supported languages
      Node.js Python Ruby
      Java Go Rust
    Features
      Image inspection
      Dockerfile linting
      Security profiles
    Tech stack
      Go language
      Docker integration

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Shrink Docker images in CI/CD pipelines before pushing to production registries.

USE CASE 2

Reduce cloud storage and bandwidth costs by deploying smaller container images.

USE CASE 3

Lower security risk by removing unused files and libraries from production containers.

USE CASE 4

Automatically generate AppArmor and Seccomp security profiles for hardened deployments.

Tech stack

GoDockerAppArmorSeccomp

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires Docker and Linux kernel with AppArmor/Seccomp support; may need to build from source or use pre-built binaries.

Free and open source under a permissive license; use freely for any purpose including commercial deployment.

In plain English

Slim (formerly DockerSlim) is a tool that automatically shrinks Docker container images, often by 30 times or more in size, without requiring any changes to your Dockerfile or application code. Containers are a way of packaging an application with everything it needs to run, but they often end up including far more files, libraries, and tools than the app actually uses. Slim analyzes what your app truly needs at runtime and strips everything else away. The way it works: Slim temporarily runs your container, observes what files, system calls, and resources the application actually touches during operation, and then builds a new minimal image containing only those essential components. The result is a much smaller image that also has a reduced security attack surface, fewer files means fewer potential vulnerabilities. It works across many application types including Node.js, Python, Ruby, Java, Go, and Rust, and with various base images like Ubuntu, Debian, Alpine, and Distroless. Beyond size reduction, it also provides commands to inspect images, lint Dockerfiles, debug containers, and even automatically generate security profiles (AppArmor and Seccomp). You would use Slim in a CI/CD pipeline to shrink container images before deploying to production, reducing storage costs, transfer times, and security risk. It is written in Go, free and open source, and is a CNCF Sandbox project.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I use Slim to shrink my Node.js Docker image and integrate it into my GitHub Actions CI/CD pipeline?
Prompt 2
Show me how to run Slim on my existing Dockerfile without modifying it, and what the size reduction typically looks like.
Prompt 3
How can I use Slim to generate security profiles (AppArmor/Seccomp) for my containerized application?
Prompt 4
What are the best practices for using Slim with multi-stage Docker builds and Alpine base images?
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Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.