* The OCI Image Layout is a slash separated layout of OCI content-addressable blobs and [location-addressable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content-addressable_storage#Content-addressed_vs._location-addressed) references (refs).
* This layout MAY be used in a variety of different transport mechanisms: archive formats (e.g. tar, zip), shared filesystem environments (e.g. nfs), or networked file fetching (e.g. http, ftp, rsync).
Given an image layout and a ref, a tool can create an [OCI Runtime Specification bundle](https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/v1.0.0-rc3/bundle.md) by:
* Converting the [image configuration](config.md) into an [OCI Runtime Specification `config.json`](https://github.com/opencontainers/runtime-spec/blob/v1.0.0-rc3/config.md)
* Object names in the `blobs` subdirectories are composed of a directory for each hash algorithm, the children of which will contain the actual content.
* The content of `blobs/<alg>/<encoded>` MUST match the digest `<alg>:<encoded>` (referenced per [descriptor](descriptor.md#digests-and-verification)). For example, the content of `blobs/sha256/da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709` MUST match the digest `sha256:da39a3ee5e6b4b0d3255bfef95601890afd80709`.
* The character set of the entry name for `<alg>` and `<encoded>` MUST match the respective grammar elements described in [descriptor](descriptor.md#digests-and-verification).
* The blobs directory MAY contain blobs which are not referenced by any of the [refs](#indexjson-file).
* The blobs directory MAY be missing referenced blobs, in which case the missing blobs SHOULD be fulfilled by an external blob store.
This JSON object serves as a marker for the base of an Open Container Image Layout and to provide the version of the image-layout in use.
The `imageLayoutVersion` value will align with the OCI Image Specification version at the time changes to the layout are made, and will pin a given version until changes to the image layout are required.
* No semantic restriction is given for the "org.opencontainers.image.ref.name" annotation of descriptors.
* In general the `mediaType` of each [descriptor][descriptors] object in the `manifests` field will be either `application/vnd.oci.image.index.v1+json` or `application/vnd.oci.image.manifest.v1+json`.
* Future versions of the spec MAY use a different mediatype (i.e. a new versioned format).
* An encountered `mediaType` that is unknown SHOULD be safely ignored.
Those tags will often be represented in an image-layout repository with matching "org.opencontainers.image.ref.name" annotations like "v1.0.0-vendor.0", "2.0.0-debug", etc.