nerdctl image ls only lists images with tag latest

[mloskot]

I've started using the nerdctl recently. Together with containerd and buildkit, I use it to build Windows-based images on Windows Server 2022. I'm not sure what I'm observing, a bug or a feature, but I'm failing to find answers in the issues and discussions archives. I'd appreciate if anyone could explain me this behaviour:

This looks good:

PS> nerdctl image ls
REPOSITORY                              TAG                               IMAGE ID        CREATED           PLATFORM         SIZE       BLOB SIZE
myapp                                   9.8-ltsc2022-0.1.0-dev.5011fb1    5e2b4a9d1b07    34 minutes ago    windows/amd64    11.91GB    2.113GB
mcr.microsoft.com/windows/servercore    ltsc2022                          b841bb042e13    47 hours ago      windows/amd64    11.64GB    2.102GB
hello                                   latest                            9d75a9797699    6 days ago        windows/amd64    902.2MB    120.4MB

This is puzzling:

PS > nerdctl image ls myapp
REPOSITORY    TAG    IMAGE ID    CREATED    PLATFORM    SIZE    BLOB SIZE

Especially, that this works as expected:

PS > nerdctl image ls hello
REPOSITORY    TAG       IMAGE ID        CREATED       PLATFORM         SIZE       BLOB SIZE
hello         latest    9d75a9797699    6 days ago    windows/amd64    902.2MB    120.4MB

But, if I do this:

nerdctl image tag myapp:9.8-ltsc2022-0.1.0-dev.5011fb1 myapp:latest

Then, this is even more puzzling:

PS > nerdctl image ls myapp
REPOSITORY        TAG       IMAGE ID        CREATED          PLATFORM         SIZE       BLOB SIZE
myapp             latest    5e2b4a9d1b07    3 seconds ago    windows/amd64    11.91GB    2.113GB

I'd appreciate if anyone could help me understand what is going above :)

---

PS > nerdctl version
time="2026-07-30T21:53:56+01:00" level=warning msg="unable to determine runc version" error="exec: \"runc\": executable file not found in %PATH%"
Client:
 Version:       v2.3.4
 OS/Arch:       windows/amd64
 Git commit:    0ce88b9d78b13f0caebc59c6bb01885d7df24fba
 buildctl:
  Version:      v0.31.2
  GitCommit:    e42e1bfd389af7203238cce77b1f7dad447285e9

Server:
 containerd:
  Version:      v2.3.3
  GitCommit:    aad11006b869517fcd3009450b6f82da282e1a9b
 runc:
  Version:

[mloskot]

I think it is a bug or at least an annoyance due to inconsistency with the docker image ls behaviour, so I risked submitting a bug repoirt:

• nerdctl image ls myapp shows nothing for images without latest tag #5113

[mloskot]

For the records, the bug was confirmed and fixed. The fix targets 2.4.0 release.