Generated banner for Docker Agent Deploy
Generated logo for Docker Agent Deploy

Docker Agent Deploy

DockerOfficialPublished by Docker

  • Skill
  • Tool integration
  • Cloud and DevOps
  • Apache-2.0
  • No issues found

From the author

Use this skill when exposing a Docker Agent as a server (MCP, HTTP API, A2A, ACP, or OpenAI-compatible chat), distributing an agent via an OCI registry with `docker agent share`, or measuring agent quality with `docker agent eval`. Even if the user just says they want to "turn my agent into an MCP server", "let Claude Desktop use my agent", "publish my agent to Docker Hub", "push my agent like an image", or "test my agent in CI", this skill applies. Covers `serve mcp/api/a2a/acp/chat` listen addresses and auth flags, `share push/pull`, eval session JSON format, scoring metrics, and the `--baseline` regression gate.
— the description by Docker

AutoGineer summary

Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author

This skill provides the procedures for exposing Docker Agents as network services, sharing them through OCI registries, and validating their performance through automated regression testing. It covers the lifecycle of an agent once the configuration is defined, including server modes like MCP, HTTP API, and chat, as well as the evaluation framework for ensuring consistent behavior across updates.

What it does

  • Exposes agents as MCP, HTTP API, A2A, ACP, or OpenAI-compatible chat servers.
  • Distributes agent configurations via OCI registries using push and pull commands.
  • Automates agent quality checks using JSON-based evaluation sessions.
  • Gates CI pipelines against regressions using baseline comparison and tolerance thresholds.
  • Configures security and authentication for network-reachable agent endpoints.
  • Manages isolated evaluation environments using container runtimes.

When to use it

  • When you need to make an agent accessible to external clients or other agents.
  • When you want to publish or share an agent configuration using standard container registry workflows.
  • When you need to verify agent behavior after configuration changes to prevent regressions.
  • When you need to integrate agent testing into a CI/CD pipeline.

Advantages

  • Uses familiar OCI registry workflows for agent distribution.
  • Provides deterministic assertion-based testing for reliable agent validation.
  • Supports multiple server modes for flexible integration with various client types.
  • Enables regression gating to maintain agent quality over time.

Usage examples

“How do I turn my agent into an MCP server for Claude Desktop?”
The agent can be served using 'docker agent serve mcp ./agent.yaml', which defaults to stdio transport suitable for local clients like Claude Desktop.
“How can I publish my agent to Docker Hub?”
Use 'docker agent share push ./agent.yaml docker.io/username/my-agent:latest' to distribute your agent configuration as an OCI artifact.
“How do I test my agent in CI to ensure it doesn't regress?”
Run 'docker agent eval ./agent.yaml --baseline results/baseline.json --regression-tolerance 0.05' to compare current performance against a known good state.

Install

  1. Download the skill as a ZIP:

    https://autogineer.com/agent-skills/docker/docker-agent-deploy/download
  2. Unzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:

    mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip docker-agent-deploy.zip -d .agents/skills

Documentation by Docker

Docker Agent: Serving, Sharing, and Evaluating

Overview

This skill owns the integration surface of Docker Agent: making an agent reachable by other software (docker agent serve), distributing it through an OCI registry the way container images are distributed (docker agent share), and proving it still behaves after a change (docker agent eval). It assumes the agent config already exists — see docker-agent-config for authoring it, and docker-agent-run for interactive/local invocation.

When to use this skill

Activate this skill when:

  • The user wants an agent reachable over MCP, an OpenAI-compatible chat endpoint, a plain HTTP API, or A2A/ACP.

  • The user wants to publish an agent to Docker Hub (or any OCI registry) or pull one someone else published.

  • The user wants automated evaluations (regression tests) for an agent, or wants to gate CI on eval results.

Do not use this skill when

Do not use this skill when:

  • The task is authoring the agent.yaml itself (models, toolsets, sub_agents) — use docker-agent-config.

  • The task is running the agent interactively on a developer's machine, choosing --safety/--sandbox, or aliases — use docker-agent-run.

Core guidance

Serving an agent
  • Five server modes, each with its own default loopback listen address — never expose any of them beyond loopback without authentication:

    ModeDefault listenAuth flagHas --safety?
    serve mcp127.0.0.1:8081--auth-token (only with --http)Yes (only with --http)
    serve api127.0.0.1:8080--auth-tokenNo
    serve chat127.0.0.1:8083--api-key / --api-key-envYes
    serve a2a127.0.0.1:8082--auth-tokenYes
    serve acp(stdio only)n/aNo
    docker agent serve mcp ./agent.yaml --http --listen 127.0.0.1:9090 --auth-token "$TOKEN"
  • serve mcp defaults to stdio transport (for local clients like Claude Desktop); pass --http only when you need a network-reachable MCP endpoint, and set --auth-token whenever you do.

  • Binding any server flag to a non-loopback address without an auth token/key is refused; --insecure-no-auth exists to force it and must be treated as a deliberate, documented exception, never a default.

  • serve mcp (with --http), serve chat, and serve a2a expose --safety (strict/balanced/restricted/autonomous); Docker's docs state it defaults to restricted for these modes when unset. serve api and serve acp expose no --safety flag at all. Never raise --safety to autonomous on a network-reachable listener; if a served agent must approve more, prefer balanced and keep auth enabled.

  • serve api accepts a directory instead of a single file: every .yaml/.yml/.hcl in it is exposed under /api/agents. Use --session-workingdir-root to confine session working directories when the server is reachable by more than one user.

Sharing agents via OCI registries
  • Push and pull agent configs the same way you push and pull images — same registry, same docker login auth:

    docker agent share push ./agent.yaml docker.io/username/my-agent:latest
    docker agent share pull docker.io/username/my-agent:latest
  • instruction_file contents are inlined into the pushed artifact automatically, so a published agent stays self-contained — you do not need to bundle the referenced files separately.

  • Pin sub_agents that reference the pushed artifact to a digest (name@sha256:...) once published, to avoid a per-run registry lookup and to guarantee the exact config a consumer gets.

  • Use --force on share pull only when you intend to overwrite a local copy that already exists; without it, an existing local config is left untouched.

Evaluating agents
  • Evals live in an evals/ directory next to the agent config by default; each eval is one JSON session file capturing a user message, the recorded tool calls, and an evals object with the scoring criteria.

  • Create eval sessions from real conversations rather than hand-writing JSON: run the agent interactively, then use the /eval slash command in the TUI to save the session, and edit in relevance/size/assertions criteria afterward.

  • Four scoring dimensions: Tool Calls (F1 against the recorded sequence), Relevance (LLM-judge, --judge-model, default anthropic/claude-opus-5), Size (S/M/L/XL response-length bucket), and Assertions (deterministic checks; see the complete assertion-type list in references/eval-format.md). Prefer assertions over relevance when a check can be exact: they need no judge model and are deterministic, not approximation-prone.

  • Evaluations run inside containers for isolation; a Docker-compatible runtime is required. Dedicated provider API keys (ANTHROPIC_API_KEY/OPENAI_API_KEY) are forwarded automatically. GITHUB_TOKEN/GH_TOKEN are not forwarded automatically (they're broad host credentials, not model keys) — pass them explicitly with -e GITHUB_TOKEN when an agent's provider needs one (e.g. github-copilot).

  • Gate CI on regressions, not on absolute scores, with --baseline:

    docker agent eval ./agent.yaml --baseline results/2026-08-01-run.json --regression-tolerance 0.05

    A previously-passing eval that now fails always gates regardless of tolerance; cost changes are reported but never gate. A baseline or run with zero evaluations (e.g. an --only pattern matching nothing) is rejected rather than reported as passing.

  • Use --keep-containers plus your runtime's exec to inspect a failed eval's container; the eval's .db session file holds the full conversation for offline debugging.

Verify
  • After changing a served agent's config, re-run its evals with the same explicit --safety value used in the deployment before restarting the listener — this catches an approval-policy regression before it reaches traffic. If a rollout must be rolled back, restore the prior config and safety flag; never restore an unauthenticated listener as a rollback shortcut.

  • For writing or changing the underlying agent.yaml, use docker-agent-config.

  • For local/interactive runs, safety-mode choice, and sandboxing, use docker-agent-run.

References

  • references/eval-format.md — full eval session JSON schema and CLI flag table.

  • references/sources.md — provenance of every rule in this skill.

Assets

  • assets/eval-session-example.json — a minimal eval session file to copy and adapt.

Checks

  • checks/verification.md — Verification runbook for serving, sharing, and evaluating an agent.

Files

LICENSE


                                 Apache License
                           Version 2.0, January 2004
                        http://www.apache.org/licenses/

   TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION

   1. Definitions.

      "License" shall mean the terms and conditions for use, reproduction,
      and distribution as defined by Sections 1 through 9 of this document.

      "Licensor" shall mean the copyright owner or entity authorized by
      the copyright owner that is granting the License.

      "Legal Entity" shall mean the union of the acting entity and all
      other entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common
      control with that entity. For the purposes of this definition,
      "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the
      direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or
      otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the
      outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.

      "You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity
      exercising permissions granted by this License.

      "Source" form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications,
      including but not limited to software source code, documentation
      source, and configuration files.

      "Object" form shall mean any form resulting from mechanical
      transformation or translation of a Source form, including but
      not limited to compiled object code, generated documentation,
      and conversions to other media types.

      "Work" shall mean the work of authorship, whether in Source or
      Object form, made available under the License, as indicated by a
      copyright notice that is included in or attached to the work
      (an example is provided in the Appendix below).

      "Derivative Works" shall mean any work, whether in Source or Object
      form, that is based on (or derived from) the Work and for which the
      editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications
      represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship. For the purposes
      of this License, Derivative Works shall not include works that remain
      separable from, or merely link (or bind by name) to the interfaces of,
      the Work and Derivative Works thereof.

      "Contribution" shall mean any work of authorship, including
      the original version of the Work and any modifications or additions
      to that Work or Derivative Works thereof, that is intentionally
      submitted to Licensor for inclusion in the Work by the copyright owner
      or by an individual or Legal Entity authorized to submit on behalf of
      the copyright owner. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted"
      means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent
      to the Licensor or its representatives, including but not limited to
      communication on electronic mailing lists, source code control systems,
      and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, the
      Licensor for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but
      excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise
      designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution."

      "Contributor" shall mean Licensor and any individual or Legal Entity
      on behalf of whom a Contribution has been received by Licensor and
      subsequently incorporated within the Work.

   2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
      this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
      worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
      copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of,
      publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the
      Work and such Derivative Works in Source or Object form.

   3. Grant of Patent License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
      this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
      worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
      (except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made,
      use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work,
      where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable
      by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their
      Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s)
      with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If You
      institute patent litigation against any entity (including a
      cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work
      or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct
      or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses
      granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate
      as of the date such litigation is filed.

   4. Redistribution. You may reproduce and distribute copies of the
      Work or Derivative Works thereof in any medium, with or without
      modifications, and in Source or Object form, provided that You
      meet the following conditions:

      (a) You must give any other recipients of the Work or
          Derivative Works a copy of this License; and

      (b) You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices
          stating that You changed the files; and

      (c) You must retain, in the Source form of any Derivative Works
          that You distribute, all copyright, patent, trademark, and
          attribution notices from the Source form of the Work,
          excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of
          the Derivative Works; and

      (d) If the Work includes a "NOTICE" text file as part of its
          distribution, then any Derivative Works that You distribute must
          include a readable copy of the attribution notices contained
          within such NOTICE file, excluding those notices that do not
          pertain to any part of the Derivative Works, in at least one
          of the following places: within a NOTICE text file distributed
          as part of the Derivative Works; within the Source form or
          documentation, if provided along with the Derivative Works; or,
          within a display generated by the Derivative Works, if and
          wherever such third-party notices normally appear. The contents
          of the NOTICE file are for informational purposes only and
          do not modify the License. You may add Your own attribution
          notices within Derivative Works that You distribute, alongside
          or as an addendum to the NOTICE text from the Work, provided
          that such additional attribution notices cannot be construed
          as modifying the License.

      You may add Your own copyright statement to Your modifications and
      may provide additional or different license terms and conditions
      for use, reproduction, or distribution of Your modifications, or
      for any such Derivative Works as a whole, provided Your use,
      reproduction, and distribution of the Work otherwise complies with
      the conditions stated in this License.

   5. Submission of Contributions. Unless You explicitly state otherwise,
      any Contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the Work
      by You to the Licensor shall be under the terms and conditions of
      this License, without any additional terms or conditions.
      Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify
      the terms of any separate license agreement you may have executed
      with Licensor regarding such Contributions.

   6. Trademarks. This License does not grant permission to use the trade
      names, trademarks, service marks, or product names of the Licensor,
      except as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the
      origin of the Work and reproducing the content of the NOTICE file.

   7. Disclaimer of Warranty. Unless required by applicable law or
      agreed to in writing, Licensor provides the Work (and each
      Contributor provides its Contributions) on an "AS IS" BASIS,
      WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
      implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions
      of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A
      PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for determining the
      appropriateness of using or redistributing the Work and assume any
      risks associated with Your exercise of permissions under this License.

   8. Limitation of Liability. In no event and under no legal theory,
      whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise,
      unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly
      negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall any Contributor be
      liable to You for damages, including any direct, indirect, special,
      incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a
      result of this License or out of the use or inability to use the
      Work (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill,
      work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all
      other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor
      has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

   9. Accepting Warranty or Additional Liability. While redistributing
      the Work or Derivative Works thereof, You may choose to offer,
      and charge a fee for, acceptance of support, warranty, indemnity,
      or other liability obligations and/or rights consistent with this
      License. However, in accepting such obligations, You may act only
      on Your own behalf and on Your sole responsibility, not on behalf
      of any other Contributor, and only if You agree to indemnify,
      defend, and hold each Contributor harmless for any liability
      incurred by, or claims asserted against, such Contributor by reason
      of your accepting any such warranty or additional liability.

   END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

   APPENDIX: How to apply the Apache License to your work.

      To apply the Apache License to your work, attach the following
      boilerplate notice, with the fields enclosed by brackets "[]"
      replaced with your own identifying information. (Don't include
      the brackets!)  The text should be enclosed in the appropriate
      comment syntax for the file format. We also recommend that a
      file or class name and description of purpose be included on the
      same "printed page" as the copyright notice for easier
      identification within third-party archives.

   Copyright 2026 Docker, Inc.

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   limitations under the License.

Requirements and compatibility

Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta

“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.

Needs: Needs an API key, Needs a command-line tool

The author says: Requires the docker-agent CLI plugin (Docker Desktop 4.63+, or standalone). `docker agent eval` additionally requires a Docker-compatible container runtime (Docker Desktop/Engine, or Podman via `--container-runtime`). Verified against docker-agent as shipped with Docker CLI 29.7.2.

Security

No issues found by our static scan· No issues found

A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.

Attribution and licence

Published by
Docker
Publisher
Docker (Official)
Source
docker/skills · skills/docker-agent-deploy · commit 9f04a05
Licence
Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
  • LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE)
  • ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
Synced

AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by Docker or Docker.

Download ZIP

The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download docker-agent-deploy.zip