Build Wolfi images with Bazel: Introducing rules_apko

At BazelCon 2023, the general availability of rules_apko, an open-source plugin for Bazel, was announced, enabling the creation of secure, minimal Wolfi-based container images through Bazel's build system. Developed by Chainguard, this plugin facilitates the production of distroless container images with low security vulnerabilities by integrating Wolfi's un-distro and APK packages into OCI-compliant images, ensuring a complete software bill of materials (SBOM). By using rules_apko, Bazel users can incorporate these images into their existing workflows, eliminating the need for external base image updates and deprecated APIs, while enhancing supply chain security and reproducibility. The plugin supports fully offline builds, integrity verification of packages, and is capable of building images containing any application code across different languages, providing a streamlined path for developing secure container images in enterprise applications.