melange

Melange is a tool from Chainguard for building container images from source in a reproducible and secure manner. It focuses on producing minimal, distroless-style images with a strong emphasis on supply chain security. Melange addresses the challenges of traditional Dockerfile-based builds by utilizing a declarative pipeline defined in a YAML configuration. This declarative approach improves reproducibility and allows for precise control over the build process. Melange's value lies in its ability to generate highly secure and lightweight container images with reproducible builds, reducing the attack surface and improving overall security posture. Main use cases include building base images for cloud-native applications, creating secure and reproducible build environments, and securing the software supply chain for containerized workloads. It's particularly useful for organizations that prioritize security and want to ensure the integrity of their container images.