Container Package Cleanup

Find the cleanup settings

1. Open the settings for the user or organization that owns the container packages.

   • Organization packages: Open the organization, then go to Settings → Packages → Cleanup rules.
   • Personal packages: Open your avatar menu, then go to Settings → Packages → Cleanup rules, or open your package settings directly.

2. Click Add cleanup rule to create a rule, or select an existing Container rule to edit it.

Cleanup rules apply to packages owned by that user or organization, including packages linked to repositories. See the Forgejo cleanup rules documentation for more details.

Retain release tags while removing other versions

A container package cleanup rule can remove temporary tags, such as commit hashes or branch names, while keeping tags based on semantic versions.

Save and preview before enabling

Always leave Enabled unchecked while configuring the rule and click Save first. Then click Cleanup rule preview to check which versions would be kept or removed. Only after reviewing the preview, check Enabled and click Save again to activate the rule.

Illustration of the example configuration after enabling the rule; the appearance of the Forgejo form may differ.

For example, configure a cleanup rule with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Enabled	Unchecked until after saving and reviewing the preview
Type	Container
Apply pattern to full package name	Unchecked
Keep the most recent	1 version per package
Keep versions matching	Use the expression below
Remove versions older than	Leave empty
Remove versions matching	.*

Enter this regular expression in Keep versions matching:

^(v.*|2|3|[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,2}(-[0-9A-Za-z.-]+)?([+][0-9A-Za-z.-]+)?)$

This keeps tags such as 1.2, 1.2.3, and 1.2.3-rc.1, along with all tags starting with v and the bare major-version tags 2 and 3. Adjust the 2|3 alternatives to match the major-version tags you publish. The pattern is deliberately broader than strict SemVer: v.* also retains tags such as v-next.

Keep rules take precedence over removal rules, so .* removes only versions that are not protected by a keep rule. The most recent version per package is retained, and the latest tag is always kept for Container packages.