Cloud Native Buildpacks
Cloud Native Buildpacks (CNBs) transform application source code into OCI-compliant container images that can run on any cloud, without requiring Dockerfiles. Initiated by Pivotal and Heroku in January 2018, CNBs are a CNCF incubating project licensed under Apache-2.0. They centralize container expertise through composable buildpacks, enable layer rebasing for efficient OS updates, and generate Software Bills of Materials (SBOM). The pack CLI and kpack platform operator are primary integration points.
More than an index entry, but the surface is still mostly links rather than artifacts — the cohort most likely to move a full band from modest, well-targeted work.
API Evangelist profiles Cloud Native Buildpacks the way a machine reads it — 16 machine-readable artifacts across 3 APIs, pulled from the provider's own public surface and indexed so a developer, an analyst, or an AI agent can evaluate it against every other provider on the network.
Every provider in the network is reduced to the same set of machine-readable artifacts — OpenAPI contracts, event specifications, GraphQL schemas, runnable collections, pricing and rate-limit signals, security posture, OAuth scopes, and the agent surfaces (MCP servers and skills) that let software drive the API on its own. We profile them because the interface is the part of a company you can actually inspect: it is a truer signal of what a provider does than any marketing page. From those artifacts we compute the Kin Score — Cloud Native Buildpacks scores 24.5/100 (emerging), with a separate agent-readiness read of 7/100 (human only). The full breakdown is below, followed by every artifact we hold — each card links through to its machine-readable definition on apis.io.
Kin Score
This is the API Evangelist rating — a single, repeatable read computed from the artifacts on this page. Green fill is points earned; the red track is points possible, so every bar shows earned-versus-possible at a glance.
Kin Score
How this is scored →scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
How we profile Cloud Native Buildpacks
Each block below is one kind of artifact we hold for Cloud Native Buildpacks. For each we say what it is and why it earns a place in the profile, then list every one we've indexed — capped at two rows, scroll within the panel for the rest.
APIs 3
Each API is captured as its own OpenAPI definition — every operation, parameter, and response. This is the single most useful machine-readable description of what an API does, and it's what lets us score, lint, mock, and generate against it without asking the provider for anything.
Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.
Buildpack API Specification
The Buildpack API defines the contract between a buildpack and the lifecycle that executes it. It specifies detect, build, and export phases, layer contribution formats, environ...
Platform API Specification
The Platform API defines the contract between a platform (such as pack or kpack) and the CNB lifecycle. It covers builder configuration, build inputs and outputs, stack definiti...
Distribution API Specification
The Distribution API defines the OCI-based format for packaging and distributing buildpacks and builders via container registries, including the buildpackage format.
Pricing Plans 1
Pricing is part of the interface. Machine-readable plans tell you what a tier costs and includes before you commit — one of the six things the Kin Score reads for commercial clarity.
Published pricing tiers and plan structures.
Rate Limits 1
Rate limits are the difference between a demo that works and a production integration that doesn't fall over. Publishing them is an operational-transparency signal — and a hard requirement for any agent that plans its own throughput.
Documented rate limits and quota policies.
Buildpacks Rate Limits
RATE LIMITSFinOps 1
Cost, billing, and metering signals let a buyer model the financial operations of an API before it's live. We profile them for the same reason we profile pricing: the money is part of the contract.
Cost, billing, and metering signals for API financial operations.
Buildpacks Finops
FINOPSFeatures 5
The notable capabilities this provider advertises, captured as structured features so they can be searched and compared instead of read one landing page at a time.
Notable capabilities this provider offers.
pack build
pack builder
pack rebase
pack sbom download
Buildpack Registry
Security Posture 1
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals — the evidence that a provider takes security seriously enough to document it. We profile it because you can't govern what you can't see.
Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.
Use Cases 4
What developers actually build with this provider — captured so the catalogue answers 'what is this for', not just 'what does this expose'.
What developers build with this provider.
App Developer Image Building
Platform Operator Integration
Buildpack Authoring
OS-Level Security Patching
Resources
Every other property we hold for Cloud Native Buildpacks — documentation, portals, status pages, policies, and corporate surface — grouped by the job it does, following the integrator's arc from getting started to running in production.
Get Started 1
Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call
Documentation 2
Reference material describing how the API behaves
Build 1
SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with
Access & Security 1
Authentication, authorization, and security posture
Operate 2
Status, limits, changes, and where to get help
Company 3
The organization behind the API
Other 3
Properties that don't map to a standard resource type
← All providers · Data indexed from github.com/api-evangelist/buildpacks · machine-readable index on apis.io