Google Container Analysis API
Browse all Google APIs✓ Official Vendor SpecSecurityVulnerability Managementoauth216 EndpointsREST
For Agents
Query vulnerability findings and build provenance for Artifact Registry images, attach custom security notes, and export SBOMs so an agent can gate deployments on supply-chain risk.
Use for: I need to list all vulnerabilities for a specific container image, Get the SBOM for an image in Artifact Registry, Find all critical CVEs across our project's images, Create a custom attestation note for a signed build
Not supported: Does not run vulnerability scans, store images, or enforce deploy policy — use only to query and author finding metadata stored as notes and occurrences.
Google Container Analysis API stores and serves vulnerability, build, deployment, and SBOM metadata produced by Artifact Registry scanning, Advanced Vulnerability Insights, and other producers. It exposes notes (the metadata definitions, e.g. a CVE) and occurrences (instances of those notes against a specific resource URL such as a container image). Consumers can list occurrences for an image, attach custom notes, manage IAM on notes, and trigger an SBOM export for a scanned artifact. It is the metadata backbone for image-supply-chain security on Google Cloud.
Install Jentic One Beta
Connect the Container Analysis API to your agent
Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Container Analysis API, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.
Capabilities
What an agent can do with Container Analysis API.
List vulnerability and other occurrences for a specific container image URL
Create custom notes describing vulnerabilities, attestations, or build provenance
Attach occurrences linking a note to a specific image or other resource
Manage IAM policies on notes to control who can author findings
Trigger an SBOM export for a scanned image stored in Artifact Registry
Aggregate occurrence summaries across all images in a project
Filter findings by severity, CVE ID, or fixable status
Use Cases
Patterns agents use Container Analysis API for, with concrete tasks.
★ Deployment Gate on Critical Vulnerabilities
A CI/CD pipeline calls Container Analysis after each Artifact Registry push to list occurrences of vulnerability notes against the new image. If any CRITICAL severity finding is unfixed, the pipeline aborts the deploy. The Container Analysis API surfaces the full occurrence list including CVE IDs, fixed package versions, and effective severity.
List occurrences for resourceUrl 'https://us-docker.pkg.dev/proj/repo/api@sha256:abc' and return any with severity CRITICAL and fixAvailable false.
SBOM Export for Compliance
A regulated team needs an SPDX or CycloneDX SBOM for every production image. Container Analysis exposes exportSBOM, which writes the artifact's component graph to Cloud Storage. Compliance auditors download SBOMs from a known bucket without needing to install scanning tooling.
Trigger exportSBOM for the image 'https://us-docker.pkg.dev/proj/repo/web@sha256:def' and return the resulting Cloud Storage URI.
Custom Attestation Authoring
A security team writes attestations (signed assertions about a build) as Container Analysis notes and links them to images via occurrences. Binary Authorization at deploy time references those attestations to enforce that only trusted builds run on GKE. The API exposes notes.create, occurrences.create, and IAM management to gatekeep authoring.
Create a note of kind ATTESTATION named 'prod-signoff', attach an occurrence linking it to image digest sha256:abc, and set its IAM policy to restrict writes to securityteam@example.com.
Cross-Project Vulnerability Dashboard
A security analytics dashboard pulls occurrence summaries from Container Analysis across every project to plot fixable critical CVEs by team. The API's filtered occurrence list, combined with note metadata, gives the dashboard severity, CVSS, and remediation hints without scraping logs.
List all occurrences in project 'shared-security' filtered to vulnerability kind and severity CRITICAL, and group results by image repository.
Key Endpoints
16 endpoints — google container analysis api stores and serves vulnerability, build, deployment, and sbom metadata produced by artifact registry scanning, advanced vulnerability insights, and other producers.
METHOD
PATH
DESCRIPTION
GET
/v1/{+name}/occurrences
List occurrences in a project
GET
/v1/{+name}/notes
List notes in a project
POST
/v1/{+name}:exportSBOM
Export the SBOM for a scanned image
GET
/v1/{+name}
Get a specific note or occurrence
GET
/v1/{+name}/occurrences
List occurrences in a project
GET
/v1/{+name}/notes
List notes in a project
POST
/v1/{+name}:exportSBOM
Export the SBOM for a scanned image
GET
/v1/{+name}
Get a specific note or occurrence
Why Jentic?
Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.
Credential isolation
Google service account credentials are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents call containeranalysis.googleapis.com using short-lived OAuth access tokens with the cloud-platform scope, never raw JSON keys.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic for 'list vulnerabilities for container image' and Jentic returns the occurrences.list operation with its filter syntax and resourceUrl format documented in the schema.
Time to first call
Direct integration: 1-2 days to handle OAuth, occurrence filter syntax, and SBOM export polling. Through Jentic: under 30 minutes by composing search, load, and execute on occurrences and notes.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
FAQs
Specific to using Container Analysis API through Jentic.
What authentication does the Container Analysis API use?
The Container Analysis API uses Google OAuth 2.0 with the cloud-platform scope. Through Jentic the service account credentials are stored encrypted in the Jentic vault, and agents receive scoped access tokens minted per request.
Can I list vulnerabilities for a single container image with the Container Analysis API?
Yes. Call occurrences.list with a filter on resourceUrl matching your image's full digest URL and on kind=VULNERABILITY. Each returned occurrence contains the linked note (CVE), severity, package, fix version when available, and effective severity.
What are the rate limits for the Container Analysis API?
Container Analysis applies per-project read and write quotas, with stricter limits on exportSBOM because it triggers a long-running operation. Inspect the Cloud Console Quotas page for the precise per-method limits in your project.
How do I export an SBOM for a deployed image through Jentic?
Run pip install jentic, search Jentic for 'export sbom for container image', load the schema for the exportSBOM operation on containeranalysis.googleapis.com, and execute it with the image's full resource URL.
Does the Container Analysis API perform the vulnerability scanning itself?
No. Scans are produced by Artifact Registry and Advanced Vulnerability Insights and written into Container Analysis as occurrences. This API stores, filters, and serves those findings; it does not execute the scanners.
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