Is `wandb launch -d` or `wandb job create image` uploading a whole docker artifact and not pulling from a registry?

No, the wandb launch -d command does not upload images to a registry. Upload images to a registry separately. Follow these steps:

1. Build an image.
2. Push the image to a registry.

The workflow is as follows:

docker build -t <repo-url>:<tag> .
docker push <repo-url>:<tag>
wandb launch -d <repo-url>:<tag>

The launch agent then spins up a job pointing to the specified container. See Advanced agent setup for examples on configuring agent access to pull images from a container registry.

For Kubernetes, ensure that the Kubernetes cluster pods have access to the registry where the image is pushed.