arca

CLI for building and publishing managed container artifacts from Rust crates.

Install

cargo install arca-tool

Installed command: arca

Requirements:

• cargo
• docker with the buildx plugin, or podman

Quick start

arca login --repo us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/my-project/arca/my-image
arca build rust ./my-crate --profile dev --features '' --base-image nvidia/cuda:12.8.1-runtime-ubuntu24.04 --set-default
arca build rust ./my-crate
arca list
arca push

Commands

• arca login [--force] [--repo REGISTRY_REPO]
• arca build rust [OPTIONS] <PATH>
• arca push [ARTIFACT]
• arca list
• arca prune <local|remote> (--hours HOURS | --days DAYS)

arca login

arca login detects GCP credentials, stores publish config in ~/.arca/config.toml, and logs the local container runtime into the configured Google registry.

Example:

arca login --repo us-central1-docker.pkg.dev/my-project/arca/my-image

arca build rust

Builds the Rust crate at PATH, packages the selected binary into a container, and stores the artifact under ~/.arca/containers/<artifact-id>/.

Relevant options:

• --profile PROFILE
• -F, --features FEATURE[,FEATURE...]
• --bin NAME
• --base-image IMAGE
• -u, --set-default
• --host-build

Behavior:

• PATH may be a crate directory or a Cargo.toml.
• arca no longer prompts for build settings and no longer injects built-in Cargo/base-image defaults.
• --profile, --features, and --base-image must come either from the current command line or from previously saved crate-local defaults in <crate>/.arca/config.toml.
• --bin is only required when the crate exposes multiple binaries. Single-binary crates still auto-resolve that one binary.
• --set-default saves the resolved profile, features, binary, and base image into <crate>/.arca/config.toml for later invocations.
• After you save defaults once, arca build rust ./my-crate reuses them with no extra flags.
• The default build path is containerized: arca derives a cached builder image from the selected runtime base image and runs cargo build inside that builder container.
• Official nvidia/cuda:*-(base|runtime)-* runtime images automatically build inside the matching nvidia/cuda:*-devel-* image so the builder and runtime stay on the same CUDA family.
• Builder images are cached per builder base image, and Cargo target/ caches are reused only within the same builder environment.
• The builder mounts the crate's real source hierarchy, including local path dependencies and parent .cargo/config.toml files.
• Long-running stages are announced explicitly and stream pull/build output so first-time image pulls are visible.
• --host-build runs cargo build on the host instead of inside the cached builder container.

Typical first build:

arca build rust ./my-crate \
  --profile dev \
  --features '' \
  --base-image nvidia/cuda:12.8.1-runtime-ubuntu24.04 \
  --set-default

Typical later build:

arca build rust ./my-crate

arca push

Pushes local artifacts to the configured Google registry.

• With no argument, arca push pushes every local artifact not currently present remotely.
• With ARTIFACT, selectors may be a full artifact id, an id prefix, or a unique crate name.

arca list

Lists both stored local artifacts and arca-tracked remote artifacts under the configured registry prefix. When the same artifact exists in both places, it is merged into one compact entry showing:

• local/remote presence
• profile, binary, base image, and builder-cache status
• current remote presence or last remembered upload ref

arca prune

Deletes arca-tracked artifacts older than the requested age cutoff:

arca prune local --hours 12
arca prune remote --days 14

local removes stored artifacts from ~/.arca/containers and deletes their local runtime images. remote deletes arca-tracked images from the configured Google registry and clears matching upload refs from local metadata.