Developer
News and Updates
Get Support
Sign in
Get Support
Sign in
DOCUMENTATION
Cloud
Data Center
Resources
Sign in
Sign in
DOCUMENTATION
Cloud
Data Center
Resources
Sign in
Reference
Integrating a service
Testing a service locally
Last updated Jul 13, 2026

Forge Container services reference: Glossary (Preview)

Forge Container services is now in Preview, and therefore fully supported. However, it remains under active development and may be subject to shorter deprecation windows. Preview features are suitable for early adopters in production environments.

We release preview features so partners and developers can study, test, and integrate them prior to General Availability (GA). For more details, see Forge EAP, Preview, and GA.

The implementation of Forge Container services varies slightly from how traditional containerised services work. The following glossary helps clarify these subtle differences:

TermDefinition
ContainerA portable, self-contained unit of software. This unit contains all of the dependencies and configurations necessary to launch an isolated process used for providing capabilities for a containerised service. Containers are packaged in images, from which they can also be deployed.

In Forge, containers are defined in the manifest through the container property.

NOTE: During Preview, you can define up to 3 services with one container, per app. Refer to the Forge Container services roadmap for a full list of Preview limitations.

Container instanceThe resulting process that runs when you deploy a container. A service instance is made up of one or more container instances.
Containerised serviceA logical grouping of one or more containers that provide a specific capability. In Forge, a containerised service is defined in the manifest through the top-level service property; each service contains one or more container definitions.

Containerised services handle inbound and outbound requests via REST API.

NOTE: During Preview, you can define up to 3 services with one container, per appp. Refer to the Forge Container services roadmap for a full list of Preview limitations.

Forge Container servicesA set of tools and capabilities provided by the Forge platform for packaging, deploying, and managing containerised services for apps. Forge Container services let you run services from container images directly on Forge infrastructure.
ImageA read-only, immutable, and executable package containing all the code required to deploy a container. An image contains all of the code’s dependencies, including its runtime, tools, libraries, and settings.
Image tagImage versions are identified by tag; in Forge, these tags are immutable. Image tags like latest won't work; we recommend using environment variables on your tagging scheme.
RegistryA database of container images and their different versions. In Forge, each container instance is launched from images stored on the Forge Container services registry. The Forge Container services registry is forge-registry.services.atlassian.com.
RepositoryA dedicated space within the Forge Container services registry for storing different versions of a container’s image. Each container will have its own repository, and Forge apps can deploy specific image versions (identified by tag).Each container repository name follows this structure:forge-registry.services.atlassian.com/forge/${APP_ID}/${CONTAINER_KEY}
Service instanceThe resulting hosted service that runs when you deploy a containerised service. A service instance is made up of one or more running container instances.

NOTE: During Preview, you can define up to 3 services with one container, per app. Refer to the Forge Container services roadmap for a full list of Preview limitations.

Learning resources

Rate this page: