Seen in production on 2026-09-11: three cold pulls of a 22-layer image failed with BLOB_UNKNOWN for layers that exist. The hold had answered 403 "service token authentication failed: token has expired", and the same blobs served fine a minute later. Three things lined up. The registry middleware's validation cache kept a fetched service token for a flat 45 seconds regardless of its real remaining life, so a token fetched with 12 seconds left was still handed to the hold half a minute after it died. The registry JWT is stamped from the auth cache's expiry, which trailed the real exp by only 10 seconds, while distribution accepts a JWT for 60 seconds past its exp, so a client could hold an accepted JWT for most of a minute after the credential behind it was gone. And the hold's 403 was flattened to BLOB_UNKNOWN, so the client failed instead of re-authenticating. Now the validation cache bounds an entry by the token's exp minus a shared ServiceTokenSafetyMargin of 60 seconds, the same margin the auth cache and the JWT stamp use, chosen to equal distribution's leeway so the last instant a JWT is accepted is the service token's real exp. A PDS that grants less than the margin gets half its remaining life instead of an already-past deadline. When the hold rejects the service token as expired or missing, the appview drops both cached copies and returns a 401 challenge so Docker and crane re-run the token dance and retry; a genuine permission denial stays a 403, and a hold that is down still maps to blob unknown. Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01EvFJr4Dwz8p2NDAeXmgmBt
ATCR - ATProto Container Registry
https://atcr.io
An OCI-compliant container registry that uses the AT Protocol for manifest storage and S3 for blob storage.
What is ATCR?
ATCR integrates container registries with the AT Protocol ecosystem. Container image manifests are stored as ATProto records in your Personal Data Server (PDS), while layers are stored in S3-compatible storage.
Image names use your ATProto identity:
atcr.io/alice.bsky.social/myapp:latest
atcr.io/did:plc:xyz123/myapp:latest
Architecture
Three components:
-
AppView - Registry API + web UI
- Serves OCI Distribution API (Docker push/pull)
- Resolves handles/DIDs to PDS endpoints
- Routes manifests to user's PDS, blobs to hold services
- Web interface for browsing/search
-
Hold Service - Storage service with embedded PDS (optional BYOS)
- Each hold has a full ATProto PDS for access control (captain + crew records)
- Identified by did:web (e.g.,
did:web:hold01.atcr.io) - Generates presigned URLs for S3/Storj/Minio/etc.
- Users can deploy their own storage and control access via crew membership
-
Credential Helper - Client authentication
- ATProto OAuth (DPoP handled transparently)
- Automatic authentication on first push/pull
Storage model:
- Manifests → ATProto records in user's PDS (small JSON, includes
holdDidreference) - Blobs → Hold services via presigned S3 uploads, direct PUT for small blobs and XRPC multipart for large ones (stored in S3/etc.)
- AppView uses service tokens to communicate with holds on behalf of users
Features
- ✅ OCI-compliant - Works with Docker, containerd, podman
- ✅ Decentralized - You own your manifest data via your PDS
- ✅ ATProto OAuth - Secure authentication (DPoP-compliant)
- ✅ BYOS - Deploy your own storage service
- ✅ Web UI - Browse, search, star repositories
- ✅ Multi-backend - S3, Storj, Minio, Azure, GCS, filesystem
Quick Start
Using the Registry
1. Install credential helper:
curl -fsSL https://atcr.io/static/install.sh | bash
2. Configure Docker (add to ~/.docker/config.json):
{
"credHelpers": {
"atcr.io": "atcr"
}
}
3. Push/pull images:
docker tag myapp:latest atcr.io/yourhandle/myapp:latest
docker push atcr.io/yourhandle/myapp:latest # Authenticates automatically
docker pull atcr.io/yourhandle/myapp:latest
See INSTALLATION.md for detailed installation instructions.
Running Your Own AppView
# Build
go build -o bin/atcr-appview ./cmd/appview
# Generate a config file with all defaults
./bin/atcr-appview config init config-appview.yaml
# Edit config-appview.yaml — set server.default_hold_did at minimum
# Run
./bin/atcr-appview serve --config config-appview.yaml
Using Docker:
docker build -f Dockerfile.appview -t atcr-appview:latest .
docker run -d -p 5000:5000 \
-v ./config-appview.yaml:/config.yaml:ro \
-v atcr-data:/var/lib/atcr \
atcr-appview:latest serve --config /config.yaml
See deploy/README.md for production deployment.
Running Your Own Hold (BYOS Storage)
See docs/hold.md for deploying your own storage backend.
Development
Building from Source
# Build all binaries
go build -o bin/atcr-appview ./cmd/appview
go build -o bin/atcr-hold ./cmd/hold
go build -o bin/docker-credential-atcr ./cmd/credential-helper
# Run tests
go test ./...
go test -race ./...
Project Structure
cmd/
├── appview/ # Registry server + web UI
├── hold/ # Storage service (BYOS)
├── credential-helper/ # Docker credential helper
├── oauth-helper/ # OAuth debug tool
├── healthcheck/ # HTTP health check (for Docker)
├── db-migrate/ # SQLite → libsql migration
├── usage-report/ # Hold storage usage report
├── record-query/ # Query ATProto relay by collection
└── s3-test/ # S3 connectivity test
pkg/
├── appview/
│ ├── db/ # SQLite database (migrations, queries, stores)
│ ├── handlers/ # HTTP handlers (home, repo, search, auth, settings)
│ ├── holdhealth/ # Hold service health checker
│ ├── jetstream/ # ATProto Jetstream consumer
│ ├── middleware/ # Auth & registry middleware
│ ├── ogcard/ # OpenGraph image generation
│ ├── readme/ # Repository README fetcher
│ ├── routes/ # HTTP route registration
│ ├── storage/ # Storage routing (blob proxy, manifest store)
│ ├── public/ # Static assets (JS, CSS, install scripts)
│ └── templates/ # HTML templates
├── atproto/ # ATProto client, records, manifest/tag stores
├── auth/
│ ├── oauth/ # OAuth client, refresher, storage
│ ├── token/ # JWT issuer, validator, claims
│ └── holdlocal/ # Local hold authorization
├── config/ # Config marshaling (commented YAML)
├── hold/
│ ├── admin/ # Admin web UI
│ ├── billing/ # Stripe billing integration
│ ├── db/ # Vendored carstore (go-libsql)
│ ├── gc/ # Garbage collection
│ ├── oci/ # OCI upload endpoints
│ ├── pds/ # Embedded PDS (DID, captain, crew, stats, scans)
│ └── quota/ # Storage quotas
├── logging/ # Structured logging + remote shipping
└── s3/ # S3 client utilities
License
MIT
Contributing
Contributions welcome! Please open an issue or PR.