V
Vib

Title: Getting Started
Description: Install Vib 1.1 and build a container image from a recipe.
PublicationDate: 2026-08-24
Listed: true
Authors:
- mirkobrombin
- kbdharun
- surinameclubcard
- NN708
Tags:

- getting-started

Vib generates container images from YAML recipes. A recipe defines image stages
and the modules that configure each stage.

Requirements

Vib runs on a glibc-based Linux distribution. Install Docker or Podman only if
you want Vib to build the generated Containerfile for you.

Install Vib

Download the binary for your architecture from the
Vib releases page. For AMD64:

wget https://github.com/Vanilla-OS/Vib/releases/latest/download/vib-amd64
chmod +x vib-amd64
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
mv vib-amd64 ~/.local/bin/vib

Download the matching plugin archive and install it globally:

wget https://github.com/Vanilla-OS/Vib/releases/latest/download/plugins-amd64.tar.gz
sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/vib/plugins
sudo tar -xvf plugins-amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/share/vib/plugins --strip-components=2

Use the arm64 assets on an AArch64 system. Project-specific plugins can be
placed in a plugins directory beside the recipe instead.

Create a recipe

Create recipe.yml:

name: My Node Image
id: my-node-image
vibversion: 1.1.0

stages:
  - id: build
    base: node:current-slim
    labels:
      maintainer: My Team
    expose:
      "3000": "tcp"
    entrypoint:
      exec:
        - node
        - /app/app.js
    modules:
      - name: build-app
        type: shell
        sources:
          - type: git
            url: https://github.com/mirkobrombin/node-sample
            branch: main
        commands:
          - mv /sources/build-app/node-sample /app
          - cd /app
          - npm install
          - npm run build

Vib 1.1 mounts module sources under /sources/MODULE_NAME while generating the
corresponding build step.

Validate and build

Check that Vib can load the recipe, then generate a Containerfile:

vib test recipe.yml
vib build recipe.yml

Choose a different output name with --output, or -o:

vib build --output Containerfile.reunion recipe.yml

Generate the Containerfile and build the image in one command:

vib compile --runtime docker recipe.yml

Docker and Podman are supported. If --runtime is omitted, Vib uses Docker
when available, then Podman. On Vanilla OS, run vib compile inside
host-shell so it can access the host container engine.

Next steps