CNI (Container Network Interface) is a CNCF-incubating project that defines a specification and libraries for configuring network interfaces in Linux containers. It provides a simple exec/stdin interface between the container runtime and network implementation plugins, enabling pluggable networking for Kubernetes and other container orchestrators. The CNI spec defines four operations (ADD, DEL, CHECK, VERSION), a network configuration document, and a plugin Result document. CNI also publishes reference plugins (bridge, ipvlan, macvlan, host-device, ptp, loopback) and meta-plugins (portmap, bandwidth, firewall, sbr).
URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/cni/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
- Type: Index
- x-type: opensource
- Access: 3rd-Party
- Cloud Native
- Containers
- Incubating
- Kubernetes
- Networking
- Plugins
- Created: 2026-03-16
- Modified: 2026-04-23
The CNI specification defines the interface between container runtimes and network plugins. It specifies how runtimes invoke plugins via environment variables (CNI_COMMAND, CNI_CONTAINERID, CNI_NETNS, CNI_IFNAME, CNI_PATH, CNI_ARGS) and stdin configuration, and how plugins respond on stdout with network interface details.
Human URL: https://www.cni.dev/docs/spec/
- Network Plugins, Specification
- Documentation
- GitHub Repository
- Network Config JSON Schema
- Result JSON Schema
- JSON-LD Context
- Naftiko Capabilities
- ADD operation: Attach a container to a network and return a Result document.
- DEL operation: Detach a container from a network and tear down resources.
- CHECK operation: Verify the container's current attachment matches the prior ADD result.
- VERSION operation: Report the CNI spec versions a plugin supports.
- Plugin Chaining: Meta-plugin chaining with prevResult.
- Network Config Schema: JSON document describing a network and its plugin chain.
- Result Schema: JSON document plugins emit on stdout.
- Kubernetes CNI Plugin: Implement a CNI plugin that integrates with Kubernetes / containerd / CRI-O.
- Network Validation: Validate network configurations and plugin Result documents against the spec.
- Custom SDN: Build custom software-defined networks for containers using a portable plugin contract.
A collection of reference networking plugins (bridge, ipvlan, macvlan, ptp, host-device, loopback) and meta-plugins (portmap, bandwidth, firewall, sbr, tuning) maintained by the containernetworking team.
Human URL: https://www.cni.dev/plugins/current/
- Containers, Kubernetes, Linux, Network Plugins, Networking
- Website
- Documentation
- GitHub Organization
- Network Config JSON Schema
- Result JSON Schema
- JSON-LD Context
- Naftiko Capabilities
FN: Kin Lane
Email: kin@apievangelist.com