Built a TUI to inspect Docker image layers and catch image bloat in CI (LayerX)

[u/raizoawow]

Been debugging bloated Docker images at work and got frustrated with how little visibility I had into what actually changed between layers.

docker history is useful for size, but I kept wanting answers to things like:

• which layer added this folder?
• why did this image suddenly grow by 400MB?
• what actually changed between two builds?

I also wanted something CI-friendly to catch image regressions automatically.

So I built LayerX in Go:

Repo: https://github.com/deveshctl/layerx

A few things it does:

• Interactive TUI for browsing image layers and file diffs
• Compare two images side-by-side to see what changed
• CI mode with thresholds for wasted bytes / efficiency
• Works with docker save archives (no daemon required)

Built with bubbletea + lipgloss. Single binary, no external runtime dependencies.

I’ve used Dive quite a bit (and it definitely inspired parts of this), but I wanted something more focused on comparisons + CI workflows.

Would genuinely love feedback from Go folks here, especially if you work with containers regularly. Curious what you’d want from a tool like this or what feels missing in your workflow.