# Image & Auth Failures

> Diagnose image reference formatting issues and private registry authentication failures.

- **Category**: Troubleshoot
- **Last Verified**: 2026-07-14

## Symptom

Deployment halts with error code `IMAGE_NOT_FOUND` or `PRIVATE_IMAGE`.

## What it means

The Kubeletto runner could not fetch the image layers from the registry.

## Most likely causes

- Typo in the image repository or tag name.
- The registry is private and Kubeletto lacks credentials (note that private registries are not supported on the free tier).

## How to diagnose it

Verify if the image can be pulled locally without authentication:

```bash
docker pull your-image:tag
```