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Updating Unique Tags for Chainguard Images article - #1898 (#1967)
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This PR is part of the Maintenance Sprint ( #1898 )

Updates screenshots and descriptions, since the UI has changed. I got
the second screenshot with @max-allan-cgr and blurred the customer's org
name from the image.

Preview Link:
https://deploy-preview-1967--ornate-narwhal-088216.netlify.app/chainguard/chainguard-images/working-with-images/unique-tags/

---------

Signed-off-by: Erika Heidi <[email protected]>
Co-authored-by: Mark Drake <[email protected]>
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erikaheidi and SharpRake authored Dec 17, 2024
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---
title: "Unique Tags for Chainguard Images"
linktitle: "Unique Tags"
aliases:
aliases:
- /chainguard/chainguard-images/unique-tags
- /chainguard/chainguard-images/images-features/unique-tags
type: "article"
description: "Overview of what Chainguard's Unique Tags are and how to access them."
date: 2024-02-29T08:49:31+00:00
lastmod: 2024-02-29T08:49:31+00:00
lastmod: 2024-12-12T08:49:31+00:00
draft: false
tags: ["Chainguard Images", "Product", "Overview"]
images: []
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toc: true
---

Some organizations use image tags as an indication that there is a new container image available in a registry. Oftentimes, these organizations' internal automation and policies expect each new build to have its own distinct tag.
Some organizations use image tags as an indication that there is a new container image available in a registry. Oftentimes, these organizations' internal automation and policies expect each new build to have its own distinct tag.

To help with cases like this, Chainguard offers Unique Tags for private registries. Unique Tags are ideal for organizations that require a strict tag per release or update of their images. They benefit teams looking for precise tracking and management of container images.
To help with cases like this, Chainguard offers Unique Tags for private registries. Unique Tags are ideal for organizations that require a strict tag per release or update of their images. They benefit teams looking for precise tracking and management of container images.

This guide provides an overview of what these Unique Tags are, the kinds of problems they aim to solve, and how you can access them in the Chainguard Console.
Unique Tags are an opt-in feature that is only available for private registries. If your organization is interested in using Unique Tags, please [contact support](https://support.chainguard.dev/hc/en-us) and we will enable this feature for you.

This guide provides an overview of what these Unique Tags are, the kinds of problems they aim to solve, and how you can access them in the Chainguard Console.

## Chainguard's Unique Tags

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After signing into the Chainguard Console, click on **Organization images** in the left-hand navigation. This will take you to your organization's Images directory where you'll be presented with a list of all the Chainguard Production Images your organization has access to.

To the right of the search box and **Category** drop-down menu is a toggle button labeled **Include unique tags**.
To the right of the search box and **Category** drop-down menu there's a filter button labeled **Visible tags**. Click on that button, and you'll see a drop-down menu with two options: **Epoch tags** and **Unique tags**. Toggle **Unique tags** to see the Unique Tags available for your organization's Images.

![Screenshot of the Organization images page, showing four Images in a table. The "Include unique tags" button is highlighted with a yellow box.](unique-tags-1.png)
![Screenshot of the Organization images page, showing Images in a table. The "Visible Tags" select box is highlighted with a yellow box, showing the option "Unique tags" checked.](unique-tags-01.png)

By toggling this button on, each individual Image's details page will show the Unique Tags available for it.

To illustrate, toggle this button on and then click on any Production Image listed in your organization's directory. This example shows a partial list of available versions of the `busybox` Image from the **Versions** tab on its details page.

![Screenshot of a portion of the busybox Image's Versions tab. This screenshot shows the ten most recently built versions, some of which include unique tags such as "1-202312280512"](unique-tags-2.png)

Here there are a number of Image versions with tags similar to `:1-202312280512`. This means that this particular version of the Image was last updated on December 28, 2023 at 5:12 AM. You can use this version's **Pull URL** (`cgr.dev/$ORGANIZATION/busybox:1-202312280512`) to download this Image, and you can be confident that this Pull URL will always refer to the same Image.

To illustrate, toggle this button on and then click on any Production Image listed in your organization's directory. The "Version" column will now show the Unique Tags available for that Image. These tags include a timestamp in the format `YYYYMMDDHHMM`, and may include a prefix to help identify and parse the tag name programmatically.

## Accessing Unique Tags
![This screenshot shows the ten most recently built versions of an image that has unique tags enabled.](unique-tags-02.png)

As mentioned previously, Unique Tags are an opt-in feature that is only available for private registries. If your organization is interested in using Unique Tags, please [contact support](https://support.chainguard.dev/hc/en-us) and we will enable this feature for you.
Here there are a number of Image versions with tags similar to `:openjdk-17-202412120223`. This means that this particular version of the Image was last updated on December 12, 2024, at 2:23 AM. You can use this version's **Pull URL** (`cgr.dev/$ORGANIZATION/jdk-fips:openjdk-17-202412120223`) to download this Image, and you can be confident that this Pull URL will always refer to the same Image.


## Learn More

It should be noted that by their design, container image tags are mutable, meaning that they can change over time. Although Unique Tags are meant to serve as a secure solution for teams whose internal workflows assume tag immutability, we still recommend that users pull Images by their digests whenever possible. Check out the ["Pulling by Digest" section](/chainguard/chainguard-images/how-to-use-chainguard-images/#pulling-by-digest) of our guide on How to Use Chainguard Images for more information. You may also find our video on [How to Use Container Image Digests to Improve Reproducibility](/chainguard/chainguard-images/videos/container-image-digests/) to be useful.

Additionally, you may find our three-part blog series on Chainguard's image tagging philosophy to be of interest.
Additionally, you may find our three-part blog series on Chainguard's image tagging philosophy to be of interest.

* [Part 1](https://www.chainguard.dev/unchained/chainguards-image-tagging-philosophy-enabling-high-velocity-updates-pt-1-of-3)
* [Part 1](https://www.chainguard.dev/unchained/chainguards-image-tagging-philosophy-enabling-high-velocity-updates-pt-1-of-3?utm_source=docs)
* [Part 2](https://www.chainguard.dev/unchained/chainguards-image-tagging-philosophy-enabling-high-velocity-updates-pt-2-of-3)
* [Part 3](https://www.chainguard.dev/unchained/chainguards-image-tagging-philosophy-enabling-high-velocity-updates-pt-3-of-3)
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