Understanding Image Tags

System components are updated and new images are released at regular intervals. This allows developers to use new features, fix existing issues, and test applications against pre-release versions.

Finding out which image is being used

To find out which image is currently in use, the sudo bootc status command can be used. Here is an example output:

[koyu@anya] ~
❯ sudo bootc status
● Booted image: registry.blossomos.org/blossom/image-dev:latest-dx
        Digest: sha256:ed35e5378263911050ec4caadaf9332def2b16e5b22d7a7854140826beab45a5 (amd64)
       Version: latest-44.20260629 (2026-06-29T21:36:08Z)
  /usr overlay: persistent, read/write

  Rollback image: registry.blossomos.org/blossom/image-dev:latest-dx
          Digest: sha256:ed35e5378263911050ec4caadaf9332def2b16e5b22d7a7854140826beab45a5 (amd64)
         Version: latest-44.20260629 (2026-06-29T21:36:08Z)

Finding the right image tag

BlossomOS image tags are logically composed of the respective release branch and optional extensions for developers ( -dx) or specific hardware ( -nvidia).

1. The Release Branches

latest: The current development branch. Contains the latest changes but may be unstable.
main: The stable standard release. Recommended for production use.
prerelease: Preview versions of upcoming releases. Ideal for testing new features before the official launch.

2. The Extensions (Suffixes)

No suffix: The standard image for Intel/AMD graphics hardware.
-dx: Enables developer mode (contains additional SDKs and tools).
-nvidia: Contains the proprietary NVIDIA drivers directly out-of-the-box.
-nvidia-dx: The combination of NVIDIA driver support and developer tools.

Overview of all available tags

Release Branch	Standard (Intel/AMD)	With NVIDIA Drivers
`main` (Stable)	`main` `main-dx`	`main-nvidia` `main-nvidia-dx`
`latest` (Bleeding Edge)	`latest` `latest-dx`	`latest-nvidia` `latest-nvidia-dx`
`prerelease` (Pre-release)	`prerelease` `prerelease-dx`	`prerelease-nvidia` `prerelease-nvidia-dx`

The latest and prerelease tags are only available on the image-dev image (e.g. registry.blossomos.org/blossom/image-dev:latest)

Developer Mode

BlossomOS comes with a developer mode that provides all the necessary tools and libraries to facilitate application development and development of the system itself. This can be activated via an image with the -dx suffix. In the future, it will be possible to enable or disable developer mode using an adjust command.

For example, to switch to the unstable image with developer tools and NVIDIA support, the system can be switched to the corresponding tag via bootc:

sudo bootc switch registry.blossomos.org/blossom/image-dev:latest-nvidia-dx