diff --git a/oci/private/image.sh.tpl b/oci/private/image.sh.tpl
index f06edeaa..50454c8d 100644
--- a/oci/private/image.sh.tpl
+++ b/oci/private/image.sh.tpl
@@ -60,8 +60,6 @@ function base_from_layout() {
 
     "${CRANE}" push "${oci_layout_path}" "${registry}/image:latest" --image-refs "${refs}" > "${output}" 2>&1
 
-    echo "${output}" >&2
-
     if grep -q "MANIFEST_INVALID" "${output}"; then
     cat >&2 << EOF
 
@@ -79,7 +77,7 @@ EOF
     cat "${refs}"
 }
 
-# removes unreferenced blobs from oci-layout
+# removes unreferenced blobs from oci-layout and normalizes index.json
 function gc() {
     local ref="$1"
     local digest=$("${CRANE}" digest "${ref}")
@@ -94,6 +92,9 @@ function gc() {
             fi
         done
     done
+    mv "${STORAGE_DIR}/index.json" "${STORAGE_DIR}/temp.json"
+    "${JQ}" --arg digest "$digest" '.manifests |= [map(select(.digest == $digest and .annotations == null))[0]]' "${STORAGE_DIR}/temp.json" > "${STORAGE_DIR}/index.json"
+    rm "${STORAGE_DIR}/temp.json"
 }
 
 # this will redirect stderr(2) to stderr file.
@@ -178,11 +179,10 @@ if [ -n "${WORKDIR}" ]; then
 fi
 
 if [ -n "$OUTPUT" ]; then
-    # "${CRANE}" pull "${REF}" "./${OUTPUT}" --format=oci
-    # gc "${REF}"
+
+    "${CRANE}" pull "${REF}" "./${OUTPUT}" --format=oci
+    gc "${REF}"
     stop_registry "${STORAGE_DIR}"
-    cat $STDERR
 fi
 
-} 
-# 2>> "${STDERR}"
+} 2>> "${STDERR}"
diff --git a/oci/private/registry/zot_launcher.sh.tpl b/oci/private/registry/zot_launcher.sh.tpl
index ce40f774..b58d6a9d 100644
--- a/oci/private/registry/zot_launcher.sh.tpl
+++ b/oci/private/registry/zot_launcher.sh.tpl
@@ -8,12 +8,11 @@ function start_registry() {
     local config_path="$storage_dir/config.json"
 
     mkdir -p "${storage_dir}"
-    echo "$storage_dir" >&2
     cat > "${config_path}" <<EOF
 {
-    "storage":{ "rootDirectory": "$storage_dir/all",  "dedupe": false, "subPaths": {"/image": {"rootDirectory": "$storage_dir"}}},
+    "storage": { "rootDirectory": "$storage_dir/..", "dedupe": false, "commit": true },
     "http":{ "port": "0", "address": "127.0.0.1" },
-    "log":{ "level": "debug" }
+    "log":{ "level": "info" }
 }
 EOF
     "${ZOT}" serve "${config_path}" >> $output 2>&1 &
@@ -34,7 +33,10 @@ EOF
     return 0
 }
 
+
+
 function stop_registry() {
     local storage_dir="$1"
-    rm "$storage_dir/config.json"
+    rm -r "${storage_dir}/.uploads"
+    rm -r "${storage_dir}/config.json"
 }
\ No newline at end of file