Moby is an OCI container engine and runtime manager designed for building, running, and managing isolated containers based on Open Container Initiative standards. It functions as a container daemon and image builder, providing a core engine to orchestrate the full lifecycle of containers and the packaging of source code into portable images.
The project provides a standardized HTTP interface that allows for programmatic container management, enabling external clients to control daemon settings and container operations. It supports a rootless security model, allowing the engine daemon to execute without root privileges to reduce the security risk to the host system.
Its broader capabilities cover container image packaging using declarative configurations, the execution of isolated processes with specific resource constraints, and cross-platform binary compilation for multiple target architectures. It also includes functionality for transferring images between local environments and remote registries.