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Breakwater

Breakwater

by stympy·Mar 26, 2026·3 points·0 comments
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AI Analysis

●●SolidSolve My ProblemSlick

License-aware Docker pulls when Harbor's auth system falls short.

Strengths
  • •Per-customer credentials with automatic expiry tied to subscription status
  • •Full audit trail by customer, product, and tag for compliance
  • •Works with existing registries or use hosted option
Weaknesses
  • •Another auth layer in already complex container infrastructure
  • •Pricing model unclear for small vendors on the landing page
Target Audience

Commercial software vendors distributing containerized products

Similar To

Harbor · Docker Hub · GitHub Container Registry

Post Description

Hey all,

I built Breakwater to solve a problem I had at Honeybadger: managing Docker image access for customers who purchase a license to our software. It sits in front of a Docker registry and authorizes pulls based on whether the authenticated user has access to the requested image, or even certain image tags.

I had originally intended to use Harbor, but the authorization system it had didn't quite match what I wanted, so I decided to build exactly what I wanted. I started using Claude Code over the Christmas break with this as my first real project letting the AI do the work, and the next thing I knew I had a new side business. ;)

Let me know what you think!

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