Prefetching and managing container images using cluster manifest

Generally described, one or more aspects of the present application relate to prefetching container images for use in a cluster of virtual machines. For example, the cluster manifest may indicate an ordered list of image repositories and a set of container images that are likely to be executed on the cluster. Based on this indication, the set of container images can be prefetched onto the caches of the virtual machines in the cluster, such that when requests to execute those container images are eventually received, the container images can be accessed from the caches rather than from a remote repository.