Abstract: Provided is a system for inspecting and optimizing containerized software applications. A container image may include a plurality of files and layers, and some of such files and layers may not be used during the execution of the container image. A system described herein can identify and remove such unused files and/or layers from the container image by launching an inspector task configured to launch the container image, monitor access to the files in the container image, identify which files are unused, and remove the unused files from the container image (or generate a new container image not including the unused files). By doing so, the system can reduce the size of the container image, which can reduce the storage costs, startup latency, and security vulnerabilities associated with the container image.