<p>Metal corrosion has always been a challenging issue in marine, industrial, and atmospheric environments, leading to severe material degradation, economic losses, and safety hazards. Traditional protective coatings mainly rely on passive barrier effects, such as blocking the penetration of electrolytes and oxygen, but once micro-defects and cracks occur, their long-term protective effect will be limited. To overcome these drawbacks, active anticorrosion strategies using corrosion inhibitors have gained increasing attention. However, traditional corrosion inhibitor carriers (such as LDH, nanocapsules, graphene oxide, MXenes, and molybdenum disulfide) have problems, such as premature release of inhibitors, poor interfacial compatibility, or limited long-term stability. Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are novel crystalline porous polymers featuring ordered channels, tunable functional groups, and excellent chemical stability, making them promising for intelligent nano-containers as corrosion inhibitors. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the latest developments in anti-corrosion coatings utilizing COFs, mainly on different framework types - imine-linked, triazine-linked, and β-ketoenamine-linked frameworks. Among them, the β-ketoenamine covalent organic framework represented by TpPa-1 exhibits excellent structural stability and inhibitor loading capacity. We discuss the design strategies, release mechanisms, and the synergistic effect of COFs in combining passive barrier protection with active inhibitor release. Finally, we summarize the current challenges and future development prospects to stimulate the research and development of next-generation COF-based anti-corrosion coatings, making them more responsive and durable.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>