oras repo ls

List repositories in a registry.

Synopsis 

oras repo ls <registry> [options]

Description

The repo ls command lists all repositories (namespaces) in a registry that the authenticated user has access to.

This is useful for discovering what content exists in a registry.

Arguments

<registry>

Registry hostname (e.g., docker.io, ghcr.io, localhost:5000).

Options

Pagination Options

--last <repository>

List repositories lexically after this repository name (for pagination).

Example: --last myorg/app lists repositories after “myorg/app”

Output Options

--format <format>

Output format: text (default) or json.

  • text: One repository per line
  • json: JSON array of repository names

Remote Options

--username <username>, -u

Registry username.

--password <password>, -p

Registry password.

--password-stdin

Read password from stdin.

--insecure

Skip TLS certificate verification.

--plain-http

Use HTTP instead of HTTPS.

--ca-file <file>

Path to custom CA certificate.

--registry-config <file>

Path to registry configuration file (default: ~/.docker/config.json).

Common Options

--debug, -d

Enable debug logging to stderr.

--verbose, -v

Enable verbose output.

Examples

List all repositories 

oras repo ls ghcr.io

Output (text format):

myorg/app
myorg/config
myorg/library
otherorg/project

List in JSON format 

oras repo ls ghcr.io --format json

Output:

[
  "myorg/app",
  "myorg/config",
  "myorg/library",
  "otherorg/project"
]

Paginate results 

# Get first page
oras repo ls ghcr.io

# Get next page starting after "myorg/library"
oras repo ls ghcr.io --last myorg/library

List from local registry 

oras repo ls localhost:5000 --plain-http

List with authentication 

oras repo ls ghcr.io --username myuser --password-stdin

Exit Codes

  • 0 — Success (repositories found or empty registry)
  • 1 — Network error, registry error, authentication failure
  • 2 — Usage error (invalid registry)

Notes

  • Returns empty list if no repositories exist or user has no access (not an error)
  • Some registries may require authentication to list repositories
  • Use --last for pagination when dealing with large numbers of repositories
  • The list may be filtered by the registry based on user permissions
  • Output order is lexicographic

Registry Compatibility

Not all registries support repository listing:

  • ✅ Docker Hub
  • ✅ GitHub Container Registry (ghcr.io)
  • ✅ Azure Container Registry
  • ✅ Harbor
  • ⚠️ Some private registries may disable this API

If a registry doesn’t support listing, an error will be returned.

See Also