A sophisticated diagnostic tool that scans running Docker containers to identify newer image versions and generate prioritized update reports with changelog insights.
Install & Download
1. ClawHub CLI
The fastest way to install a skill directly from the registry.
npx clawhub@latest install container-update-advisor
2. Manual Installation
Copy the skill folder to one of these locations
~/.openclaw/skills/ <project>/skills/ Priority: Workspace > Local > Bundled
3. Prompt Installation
Copy this prompt to OpenClaw to install it automatically.
Help me install container-update-advisor using Clawhub. If Clawhub is not installed, install it first (npm i -g clawhub).
Prefer to download?
Get the raw skill files in a ZIP archive.
What is Container Update Advisor?
Container Update Advisor is a specialized tool within the Openclaw Skills ecosystem designed to streamline the maintenance of Docker-based infrastructure. It automates the tedious process of checking running containers against upstream registries to find available updates. Unlike basic version checkers, this skill fetches actual release notes from GitHub to provide context on what has changed between versions.
By leveraging this skill, developers and DevOps engineers can gain a clear view of their environment's technical debt. The advisor doesn't just list versions; it analyzes the impact of an update by flagging major and minor version bumps as high-risk while identifying stable patch updates that are safe for immediate deployment.
Container Update Advisor Use Cases
- Periodic auditing of production servers to identify critical container updates.
- Pre-maintenance window planning to gather changelogs and identify potential breaking changes.
- Automating infrastructure reports to track versioning compliance across multiple Docker images.
- Assessing the risk of updates by differentiating between security patches and major architectural shifts.
How Container Update Advisor Works
- The system initiates a scan of the local Docker daemon to retrieve a list of running containers and their specific image tags.
- It cross-references these tags with the Docker Hub API to determine if more recent versions exist.
- For every identified update, the tool attempts to locate the corresponding GitHub repository and fetch relevant release notes.
- An internal logic engine categorizes the update risk (Major, Minor, or Patch) based on semantic versioning rules.
- The final output is rendered into a prioritized Markdown report, highlighting exactly which containers need manual review versus which are safe to update.
Container Update Advisor Setup
To deploy this skill, ensure your environment has Python 3 and access to the Docker socket. Navigate to the scripts directory and execute the pipeline:
python3 scan_containers.py \
| python3 check_updates.py \
| python3 fetch_changelog.py \
| python3 format_report.py
To avoid GitHub rate limits when fetching large volumes of changelogs, it is recommended to export your personal access token:
export GITHUB_TOKEN=your_github_pat_here
Container Update Advisor Data Schema & Taxonomy
The skill utilizes a modular JSON-based data pipeline. Each stage enriches the dataset before final rendering:
| Stage | Output File Type | Data Contained |
|---|---|---|
| Scan | JSON | Container IDs, image names, and current semver tags. |
| Update Check | JSON | Comparison results against Docker Hub registry data. |
| Changelog Fetch | JSON | Metadata and raw release notes from GitHub. |
| Reporting | Markdown | A formatted summary with emoji-based risk indicators. |
Container Update Advisor Advanced Features
- Smart version filtering: Automatically ignores non-semver tags like latest, slim, or alpine to prevent false positives.
- Risk-aware reporting: Uses specific flags to highlight breaking changes found in changelog text.
- Pipeline flexibility: Each script supports file-based input/output, allowing for easy debugging and integration with other Openclaw Skills.
- Graceful failure handling: Skips private images or non-standard registries without interrupting the overall audit workflow.
SKILL.md
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