Why DebugBox?¶
The Problem¶
Modern production containers often ship without basic debugging tools. When something breaks:
Distroless, scratch, and minimal Alpine images are good for production, but they leave you blind when debugging.
Existing Solutions¶
- netshoot (~202 MB): Good tools, but overkill for a simple
curltest - busybox (~1.5 MB): Tiny, but lacks real debugging tools
- Alpine (~7.6 MB): Minimal but not debugging-focused
The DebugBox Answer¶
Three purpose-built variants so you pull only what you need:
| Variant | Size | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| lite | ~15 MB | Quick network/DNS checks |
| balanced | ~47 MB | Daily Kubernetes troubleshooting (default) |
| power | ~91 MB | Deep forensics, packet capture |
Up to ~13x smaller than netshoot for basic tasks.
Comparison¶
| Feature | DebugBox | netshoot | busybox |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multiple size options | ✓ (3 variants) | ✗ | ✗ |
| Smallest option | ~15 MB | ~202 MB | ~1.5 MB |
| Kubernetes-focused | ✓ (kubectx/kubens) | ✓ | ✗ |
| Multi-arch support | ✓ (amd64+arm64) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pinned tool versions | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Security scanned (Trivy) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Core Principles¶
- Variants over bloat: no unnecessary tools
- Speed: faster incident response with minimal pull times
- Transparency: every tool documented in the manifest
- Debug-first: runs as root for full debugging access (ephemeral use only)
For detailed bandwidth analysis with real-world scenarios and cost projections, see Bandwidth Savings.
→ Start with Quick Start or explore variants