Skaffold does not find previously built images from remote repository (GCP - GCR)

Expected behavior

Do not rebuild the docker image when it is cached on a remote docker registry even you don't have the cached image on local I saw the following old issue and PR, but the problem is still reproducible - https://github.com/GoogleContainerTools/skaffold/issues/2197 https://github.com/GoogleContainerTools/skaffold/pull/2470

Actual behavior

Rebuild the docker images regardless of the state on the remote registry. If you have the cached image removed from your local, skaffold will trigger a full build of all images.

Information

• Skaffold version: v1.36.0
• Operating system: macOS 12.1
• Installed via: downloaded from Github
• Contents of skaffold.yaml:

apiVersion: skaffold/v2beta27
kind: Config
metadata:
  name: deployment
build:
  googleCloudBuild:
    projectId: example
    timeout: "1800s"
    machineType: N1_HIGHCPU_8
  artifacts:
    - image: eu.gcr.io/example/push-events
      docker:
        dockerfile: backend/push-events-svc/Dockerfile
    - image: eu.gcr.io/example/gateway
      docker:
        dockerfile: backend/rgateway/Dockerfile
    - image: eu.gcr.io/example/dac-gateway
      docker:
        dockerfile: backend/dac-gateway/Dockerfile
    - image: eu.gcr.io/example/events-store
      docker:
        dockerfile: backend/eventstore/Dockerfile
    - image: eu.gcr.io/example/web-console
      context: web
      docker:
        dockerfile: Dockerfile
        buildArgs:
          ENVIRONMENT: production
  deploy:
    kubectl:
      manifests:
        - k8s/gke/test/deployment/**

Steps to reproduce the behavior

1. run skaffold build
2. cd ~/.skaffold && rm cache
3. run skaffold build again - remote cache is not recognized, skaffold triggeres a full re-build of all images