The 4D Flavor Matrix (44 Flavors)¶
A published release and the weekly schedule build base-generic, docker-generic and k8s-node-generic; every other flavor builds on a manual run of release-matrix.yml with its flavor input (or locally, see the Quickstart). Manual runs of different flavors run side by side; a second manual run of the same flavor on the same branch waits for the first, and a third replaces the waiting one.
imago structures operating system images across four orthogonal dimensions: Platform, Workload Tier, Hardware Acceleration, and Security Hardening.
All 44 flavors originate from a single base configuration and are customized via declarative Packer pipelines.
flowchart LR
%% Semantic class definitions with vibrant, high-contrast jewel palettes
classDef dim fill:#0284c7,stroke:#0369a1,stroke-width:2px,color:#ffffff
classDef tier fill:#e11d48,stroke:#be123c,stroke-width:2px,color:#ffffff
classDef out fill:#059669,stroke:#047857,stroke-width:2px,color:#ffffff
subgraph Dimensions["The 4 Orthogonal Dimensions"]
D1["Dimension 1: Platform<br/><small>Proxmox · Unraid · ESXi · BareMetal</small>"]:::dim
D2["Dimension 2: Workload Tier<br/><small>Base · Containers · K8s · K3s · CloudNative · AI · Homelab</small>"]:::dim
D3["Dimension 3: Hardware Acceleration<br/><small>VirtIO · Intel Xe · AMD ROCm · NVIDIA 580–615 · Coral</small>"]:::dim
D4["Dimension 4: Hardening Profile<br/><small>CIS L2 · NTS Chrony · BBR · Immutable Root</small>"]:::dim
end
subgraph Tiers["7 Workload Tiers (44 Production Flavors)"]
T1["Tier 1: Base Cloud (8)"]:::tier
T2["Tier 2: Container Hosts (7)"]:::tier
T3["Tier 3: Enterprise K8s (9)"]:::tier
T4["Tier 4: K3s Edge Fleet (5)"]:::tier
T5["Tier 5: CloudNative & Storage (4)"]:::tier
T6["Tier 6: AI & LLM Inference (6)"]:::tier
T7["Tier 7: Homelab Appliances (5)"]:::tier
end
subgraph Deliverables["Output Artifacts"]
Out["44 Production Cloud Images<br/><small>.qcow2.zst · .raw.zst · .vmdk.zst</small>"]:::out
end
Dimensions --> Tiers
Tiers --> Deliverables
style Dimensions fill:none,stroke:#0284c7,stroke-width:2px,stroke-dasharray: 4 4
style Tiers fill:none,stroke:#e11d48,stroke-width:2px,stroke-dasharray: 4 4
style Deliverables fill:none,stroke:#059669,stroke-width:2px,stroke-dasharray: 4 4Interactive Flavor Explorer¶
Minimal, hardened OS images with coexisting hypervisor agents (qemu-guest-agent, open-vm-tools), cryptographically verified Network Time Security (NTS), and GPU driver runtimes.
📖 View Base Tier Documentation
| Flavor Name | Hardware Stack | Kernel Profile | Key Components | Build Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
base-generic |
VirtIO / Generic CPU | generic |
Minimal OS, Anycast NTS, QEMU+VMware agents | make build-base-generic |
base-intel |
Intel Xe / Arc / Xe2 | generic |
Intel Media Driver (iHD), Level Zero, vainfo |
make build-base-intel |
base-amd |
AMD Mesa / RADV | generic |
Mesa Gallium radeonsi, RADV Vulkan, AMDGPU DRM |
make build-base-amd |
base-nvidia-legacy |
NVIDIA Pascal / Volta | generic |
NVIDIA 580 driver, CUDA 13.0, GTX 1080/P4/P40/V100 | make build-base-nvidia-legacy |
base-nvidia-mainstream |
NVIDIA Turing / Ampere | generic |
NVIDIA 595 driver, CUDA 13.2, RTX 20/30/40, A100 | make build-base-nvidia-mainstream |
base-nvidia-modern |
NVIDIA Ada / Hopper | generic |
NVIDIA 615 driver, CUDA 13.4, RTX 4080/4090, H100 | make build-base-nvidia-modern |
base-nvidia-bleeding |
NVIDIA Blackwell | generic |
NVIDIA 615 driver, CUDA 13.4, RTX 5090, B200 | make build-base-nvidia-bleeding |
base-nvidia-datacenter |
NVIDIA Hopper / Blackwell | baremetal |
NVIDIA 615 Open Kernel Modules, Fabric Manager | make build-base-nvidia-datacenter |
Turnkey container appliances equipped with Docker CE 29.8, Docker Compose v2, or rootless Podman 5.x, along with declarative Container Device Interface (CDI) passthrough.
📖 View Containers Tier Documentation
| Flavor Name | Hardware Stack | Kernel Profile | Key Components | Build Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
docker-generic |
VirtIO / CPU | generic |
Docker CE 29.8, Docker Compose v2, systemd cgroup | make build-docker-generic |
docker-intel |
Intel GPU | generic |
Docker CE + Intel QuickSync passthrough + CDI spec | make build-docker-intel |
docker-amd |
AMD GPU | generic |
Docker CE + AMD ROCm 7.2 compute runtime + CDI spec | make build-docker-amd |
docker-nvidia |
NVIDIA Mainstream | generic |
Docker CE + NVIDIA 595 + Container Toolkit CDI | make build-docker-nvidia |
docker-nvidia-modern |
NVIDIA Modern | generic |
Docker CE + NVIDIA 615 + Container Toolkit CDI | make build-docker-nvidia-modern |
docker-nvidia-bleeding |
NVIDIA Bleeding | generic |
Docker CE + NVIDIA 615 + Container Toolkit CDI | make build-docker-nvidia-bleeding |
podman-generic |
VirtIO / CPU | generic |
Podman 5.x, Buildah, Skopeo, Quadlet, Netavark CNI | make build-podman-generic |
Production Kubernetes worker nodes pre-baked with containerd 2.3.5, kubelet 1.37.0, kubeadm, and optional preheated CNI/VIP images for instant cluster join.
📖 View Kubernetes Tier Documentation
| Flavor Name | Hardware Stack | Preheat Profile | Key Components | Build Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
k8s-node-generic |
VirtIO / CPU | lean |
containerd 2.3.5, kubelet 1.37.0, zero pre-cache | make build-k8s-generic |
k8s-node-cilium |
VirtIO / CPU | cilium |
containerd 2.3.5, preheated Cilium 1.20.1 & kube-vip 1.2.3 | make build-k8s-cilium |
k8s-node-calico |
VirtIO / CPU | calico |
containerd 2.3.5, preheated Calico 3.32.2 & kube-vip 1.2.3 | make build-k8s-calico |
k8s-node-flannel |
VirtIO / CPU | flannel |
containerd 2.3.5, preheated Flannel 0.28.9 & kube-vip 1.2.3 | make build-k8s-flannel |
k8s-node-intel |
Intel Arc / Xe2 | cilium |
containerd 2.3.5 + Intel drivers + Intel K8s Plugin v0.36.0 | make build-k8s-intel |
k8s-node-amd |
AMD ROCm 7.2 | cilium |
containerd 2.3.5 + AMD ROCm 7.2 + AMD K8s Plugin v1.37.0 | make build-k8s-amd |
k8s-node-nvidia |
NVIDIA Mainstream | cilium |
containerd 2.3.5 + NVIDIA 595 + NVIDIA K8s Plugin v0.20.0 | make build-k8s-nvidia |
k8s-node-nvidia-modern |
NVIDIA Modern | cilium |
containerd 2.3.5 + NVIDIA 615 + NVIDIA K8s Plugin v0.20.0 | make build-k8s-nvidia-modern |
k8s-node-nvidia-bleeding |
NVIDIA Bleeding | cilium |
containerd 2.3.5 + NVIDIA 615 + NVIDIA K8s Plugin v0.20.0 | make build-k8s-nvidia-bleeding |
Sub-300MB idle RAM Kubernetes nodes designed for resource-constrained edge systems, Intel N100 Alder Lake-N mini-PCs, and homelab media/GPU nodes.
📖 View K3s Edge Fleet Documentation
| Flavor Name | Role | Hardware Stack | Key Components | Build Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
k3s-agent-generic |
Worker | VirtIO / CPU | Lightweight K3s agent, containerd, Flannel (< 300MB RAM) | make build-k3s-agent-generic |
k3s-agent-intel |
Worker | Intel QuickSync | K3s agent + Intel Media Driver (iHD) + QuickSync |
make build-k3s-agent-intel |
k3s-agent-amd |
Worker | AMD ROCm 7.2 | K3s agent + AMD ROCm 7.2 compute runtime + RADV Vulkan | make build-k3s-agent-amd |
k3s-agent-nvidia |
Worker | NVIDIA Mainstream | K3s agent + NVIDIA 595 + Container Toolkit CDI | make build-k3s-agent-nvidia |
k3s-server-generic |
Master | VirtIO / CPU | K3s standalone control plane + embedded SQLite + local-path | make build-k3s-server-generic |
Zero-drift immutable container hosts, enterprise CNCF storage protocol appliances (NVMe-oF TCP, OpenZFS 2.3, iSCSI), and tuned PostgreSQL / CloudNativePG database nodes.
📖 View CloudNative & Storage Documentation
| Flavor Name | Role | Hardware Tier | Key Components | Build Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
cloudnative-generic |
Immutable Host | VirtIO / CPU | Read-only root protection, ephemeral tmpfs, containerd CDI | make build-cloudnative-generic |
cloudnative-k8s |
Immutable Worker | VirtIO / CPU | Read-only root protection, containerd 2.3.5, kubelet 1.37.0 | make build-cloudnative-k8s |
cloudnative-storage |
CNCF Storage | VirtIO / Baremetal | NVMe-oF (TCP), OpenZFS 2.3, iSCSI, multipath, NFS | make build-cloudnative-storage |
cloudnative-pg |
Database Host | VirtIO / Baremetal | CloudNativePG tuning, hugepages, strict memory overcommit | make build-cloudnative-pg |
High-throughput CPU/GPU inference appliances with Transparent Hugepages, NUMA optimizations, elevated memory locks, and vLLM / Ollama support.
📖 View AI Inference Tier Documentation
| Flavor Name | Hardware Stack | Kernel Profile | Key Components | Build Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
ai-infer-generic |
CPU High-Throughput | ai-infer |
AMX, AVX-512, NUMA, vLLM / Ollama CPU, Docker CE | make build-ai-infer-generic |
ai-infer-intel |
Intel Xe / Arc / Xe2 | ai-infer |
Intel Level Zero, OpenVINO, IPEX-LLM, CDI, Docker CE | make build-ai-infer-intel |
ai-infer-amd |
AMD ROCm 7.2 | ai-infer |
AMD ROCm 7.2, /dev/kfd permissions, RDNA 3/4 & Instinct |
make build-ai-infer-amd |
ai-infer-nvidia |
NVIDIA Mainstream | ai-infer |
NVIDIA 595, Transparent Hugepages, NUMA, vLLM, Docker CE | make build-ai-infer-nvidia |
ai-infer-nvidia-modern |
NVIDIA Modern | ai-infer |
NVIDIA 615, Transparent Hugepages, NUMA, vLLM, Docker CE | make build-ai-infer-nvidia-modern |
ai-infer-nvidia-bleeding |
NVIDIA Bleeding | ai-infer |
NVIDIA 615, Blackwell RTX 5090 / B200, vLLM, Docker CE | make build-ai-infer-nvidia-bleeding |
Turn-key, hardened homelab appliances resolving top r/homelab community friction points (Google Coral TPU, port 53 DNS collisions, dual-vendor VA-API media transcoding, multi-arch CI runners, and 32-bit SteamCMD game servers).
📖 View Homelab Appliances Documentation
| Flavor Name | Primary Workload | Hardware Stack | Key Components | Build Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
appliance-vision-nvr |
Frigate NVR, Scrypted | Intel GPU + Coral TPU | Coral TPU (gasket-dkms, udev), Intel QuickSync (iHD), CDI spec |
make build-appliance-vision-nvr |
appliance-gateway-dns |
AdGuard Home, Pi-hole | VirtIO / Low-Power CPU | Port 53 stub disabled, WireGuard, line-rate forwarding (< 150MB RAM) | make build-appliance-gateway-dns |
appliance-media-server |
Jellyfin, Plex, Tdarr | Intel + AMD GPU + NAS | Intel QuickSync + AMD Mesa VA-API, nfs-common, cifs-utils, 4096KB readahead |
make build-appliance-media-server |
appliance-ci-runner |
Self-Hosted CI Runner | Multi-Core CPU / DinD | QEMU ARM64/ARMv7 binfmt, Docker Buildx, git-lfs, 4GB tmpfs /tmp |
make build-appliance-ci-runner |
appliance-game-server |
SteamCMD, Pterodactyl | High Clock CPU | 32-bit i386 glibc, steamcmd, 16MB UDP socket buffer tuning, 1M file limits |
make build-appliance-game-server |
Complete flat index across all 44 flavors:
| Flavor Name | Workload Tier | Hardware Stack | Kernel Profile | Preheat Profile | Key Components |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
base-generic |
Minimal OS | VirtIO / CPU | generic |
None | Minimal OS, Anycast NTS, QEMU+VMware agents |
base-intel |
Minimal OS | Intel Xe/Arc/Xe2 | generic |
None | Intel Media Driver (iHD), Level Zero, vainfo |
base-amd |
Minimal OS | AMD GPU | generic |
None | Mesa Gallium radeonsi, RADV Vulkan, AMDGPU DRM |
base-nvidia-legacy |
Minimal OS | NVIDIA Pascal/Volta | generic |
None | NVIDIA 580 driver, CUDA 13.0, GTX 1080/P4/P40/V100 |
base-nvidia-mainstream |
Minimal OS | NVIDIA Turing/Ampere | generic |
None | NVIDIA 595 driver, CUDA 13.2, RTX 20/30/40, A100 |
base-nvidia-modern |
Minimal OS | NVIDIA Ada/Hopper | generic |
None | NVIDIA 615 driver, CUDA 13.4, RTX 4080/4090, H100 |
base-nvidia-bleeding |
Minimal OS | NVIDIA Blackwell | generic |
None | NVIDIA 615 driver, CUDA 13.4, RTX 5090, B200 |
base-nvidia-datacenter |
Minimal OS | NVIDIA Hopper/Blackwell | baremetal |
None | NVIDIA 615 Open Modules, Fabric Manager |
docker-generic |
Container Host | VirtIO / CPU | generic |
None | Docker CE 29.8, Docker Compose v2, systemd cgroup |
docker-intel |
Container Host | Intel GPU | generic |
None | Docker CE + Intel QuickSync passthrough + CDI spec |
docker-amd |
Container Host | AMD GPU | generic |
None | Docker CE + AMD ROCm 7.2 compute runtime + CDI spec |
docker-nvidia |
Container Host | NVIDIA Mainstream | generic |
None | Docker CE + NVIDIA 595 + Container Toolkit CDI |
docker-nvidia-modern |
Container Host | NVIDIA Modern | generic |
None | Docker CE + NVIDIA 615 + Container Toolkit CDI |
docker-nvidia-bleeding |
Container Host | NVIDIA Bleeding | generic |
None | Docker CE + NVIDIA 615 + Container Toolkit CDI |
podman-generic |
Rootless OCI | VirtIO / CPU | generic |
None | Podman 5.x, Buildah, Skopeo, Quadlet, Netavark CNI |
k8s-node-generic |
K8s Worker | VirtIO / CPU | k8s |
lean |
containerd 2.3.5, kubelet 1.37.0, zero pre-cache |
k8s-node-cilium |
K8s Worker | VirtIO / CPU | k8s |
cilium |
containerd 2.3.5, preheated Cilium 1.20.1 & kube-vip 1.2.3 |
k8s-node-calico |
K8s Worker | VirtIO / CPU | k8s |
calico |
containerd 2.3.5, preheated Calico 3.32.2 & kube-vip 1.2.3 |
k8s-node-flannel |
K8s Worker | VirtIO / CPU | k8s |
flannel |
containerd 2.3.5, preheated Flannel 0.28.9 & kube-vip 1.2.3 |
k8s-node-intel |
K8s Worker | Intel Arc/Xe2 | k8s |
cilium |
containerd 2.3.5 + Intel drivers + Intel K8s Plugin v0.36.0 |
k8s-node-amd |
K8s Worker | AMD GPU | k8s |
cilium |
containerd 2.3.5 + AMD ROCm 7.2 + AMD K8s Plugin v1.37.0 |
k8s-node-nvidia |
K8s Worker | NVIDIA Mainstream | k8s |
cilium |
containerd 2.3.5 + NVIDIA 595 + NVIDIA K8s Plugin v0.20.0 |
k8s-node-nvidia-modern |
K8s Worker | NVIDIA Modern | k8s |
cilium |
containerd 2.3.5 + NVIDIA 615 + NVIDIA K8s Plugin v0.20.0 |
k8s-node-nvidia-bleeding |
K8s Worker | NVIDIA Bleeding | k8s |
cilium |
containerd 2.3.5 + NVIDIA 615 + NVIDIA K8s Plugin v0.20.0 |
k3s-agent-generic |
K3s Worker | VirtIO / CPU | k8s |
None | Lightweight K3s agent, containerd, Flannel (< 300MB RAM) |
k3s-agent-intel |
K3s Worker | Intel QuickSync | k8s |
None | K3s agent + Intel Media Driver (iHD) + QuickSync |
k3s-agent-amd |
K3s Worker | AMD ROCm 7.2 | k8s |
None | K3s agent + AMD ROCm 7.2 compute runtime + RADV Vulkan |
k3s-agent-nvidia |
K3s Worker | NVIDIA Mainstream | k8s |
None | K3s agent + NVIDIA 595 + Container Toolkit CDI |
k3s-server-generic |
K3s Server | VirtIO / CPU | k8s |
None | K3s standalone control plane + embedded SQLite + local-path |
cloudnative-generic |
Immutable Host | VirtIO / CPU | generic |
None | Read-only root hardening, ephemeral tmpfs, containerd CDI |
cloudnative-k8s |
Immutable Worker | VirtIO / CPU | k8s |
lean |
Read-only root hardening, containerd 2.3.5, kubelet 1.37.0 |
cloudnative-storage |
CNCF Storage | VirtIO / Baremetal | baremetal |
None | NVMe-oF (TCP), OpenZFS 2.3, iSCSI, multipath, NFS |
cloudnative-pg |
Database Host | VirtIO / Baremetal | ai-infer |
None | CloudNativePG tuning, hugepages, strict memory overcommit |
ai-infer-generic |
AI Inference | CPU High-Throughput | ai-infer |
None | AMX, AVX-512, NUMA, vLLM / Ollama CPU, Docker CE |
ai-infer-intel |
AI Inference | Intel Xe/Arc/Xe2 | ai-infer |
None | Intel Level Zero, OpenVINO, IPEX-LLM, CDI, Docker CE |
ai-infer-amd |
AI Inference | AMD ROCm 7.2 | ai-infer |
None | AMD ROCm 7.2, /dev/kfd, RDNA 3/4 & Instinct, CDI, Docker CE |
ai-infer-nvidia |
AI Inference | NVIDIA Mainstream | ai-infer |
None | NVIDIA 595, Transparent Hugepages, NUMA, vLLM, Docker CE |
ai-infer-nvidia-modern |
AI Inference | NVIDIA Modern | ai-infer |
None | NVIDIA 615, Transparent Hugepages, NUMA, vLLM, Docker CE |
ai-infer-nvidia-bleeding |
AI Inference | NVIDIA Bleeding | ai-infer |
None | NVIDIA 615, Blackwell RTX 5090 / B200, vLLM, Docker CE |
appliance-vision-nvr |
Vision / NVR | Intel GPU + Coral TPU | generic |
None | Coral Edge TPU (gasket-dkms, udev), Intel QuickSync (iHD), CDI, Docker CE |
appliance-gateway-dns |
Gateway / DNS | VirtIO / CPU | generic |
None | Port 53 stub disabled, WireGuard, line-rate forwarding (< 150MB RAM) |
appliance-media-server |
Media Server | Intel + AMD GPU + NAS | baremetal |
None | Intel QuickSync + AMD Mesa VA-API, nfs-common, cifs-utils, 4096KB readahead |
appliance-ci-runner |
CI/CD Runner | Multi-Core CPU / DinD | generic |
None | QEMU ARM64/ARMv7 binfmt, Docker Buildx, git-lfs, 4GB tmpfs /tmp |
appliance-game-server |
Game Server | High Clock CPU | generic |
None | 32-bit i386 glibc, steamcmd, 16MB UDP socket buffer tuning, 1M file limits |