Suggestion: Docker images should have a "manifest" detailing the configuration options required to run a container

Description

If you were to pick a random container from a registry, AFAIK there is currently no way to know what configuration the container needs to be run:

• Ports: You may be able to interrogate to get a list of ports, but you don't know exactly what they are for, whether they are for a common protocol or something proprietary.
• Environment variables: You don't know which need to be set, or what the values should be
• File/volume mounts: You don't know what paths will be read for configuration or volumes that need to be remapped

Why

Tools that are supposed to make working with containers easier don't have the information required to be able to prompt or guess what details need to be passed in, you have to look at the documentation. Most tools don't know how to do that, or where to find it. If that information could be packaged with the container, it would make it much easier for a variety of tools such as:

• Docker desktop UI - It could prompt for what is needed
• Hosting services could prompt and provide sensible defaults
• LLM based tools for working with compose files and kubernetes would be able to understand what each specific container needs, and be able to make more sensible options based on it.

Start by reviewing how Docker images currently expose configuration information for ports, environment variables, and file or volume mounts, and compare that with the proposed manifest needs. Done would require an agreed manifest format and a defined implementation and validation path; this issue does not name files or tests.