Prune unused images

The Prune unused images action removes unused images from a Portainer endpoint to free up disk space. You can limit the cleanup to images that have been unused for at least a certain time, or to dangling images only.

Using this action from the user interface

If you prefer building automations and scripts visually, Home Assistant walks you through this action step by step. You pick what to target, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To prune images from an automation or a script:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation or script, or select Create to start a new one.
3. If you’re setting up a new automation, add a trigger in the When section. Scripts don’t need a trigger.
4. In the Then do section, select Add action.
5. From the search box, search for and select Portainer: Prune unused images.
6. Select the Endpoint to prune images on.
7. Optionally, set how far back to keep images and whether to limit the cleanup to dangling images.
8. Select Save.

This action does not support targets. In the UI, you select the endpoint through the Endpoint field instead of choosing an area, device, entity, or label.

Options in the UI

Using this action in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required.

In YAML, refer to this action as portainer.prune_images:

action: portainer.prune_images
data:
  device_id: a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4
  until:
    hours: 24
  dangling: true

Options in YAML

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Open Developer tools > Actions, search for this action, fill in the fields, and select Perform action. You see what happens on your actual entitiesAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more] without writing a line of YAML.

More examples

Real scenarios where this action shows up in automations and scripts. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Automation: clean up images every week

This automation prunes images that have been unused for more than a week, keeping the Docker host tidy without removing images you still rely on.

• Trigger: A scheduled time
• Action: Portainer: Prune unused images

alias: "Weekly Portainer image cleanup"
triggers:
  - trigger: time
    at: "03:00:00"
conditions:
  - condition: time
    weekday:
      - sun
actions:
  - action: portainer.prune_images
    data:
      device_id: a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4e5f6a1b2c3d4
      until:
        hours: 168

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the action you’re calling and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Related actions

These actions work well alongside this one:

• Recreate container: Recreates a container on a Portainer endpoint.