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WoodPecker CI
With 7,300+ GitHub stars and active releases through version 3.17, Woodpecker CI is the community-driven fork of Drone CI that kept the entire platform open source under Apache 2.0 — delivering a lightweight, container-native CI/CD engine that runs on minimal resources while providing enterprise-grade pipeline automation. Every pipeline step executes in an isolated Docker container, ensuring reproducible builds with zero host contamination and clean teardown after each run. Define workflows in simple YAML configuration files with step dependencies, conditional execution via when filters, service containers for databases and caches, and matrix builds that test across multiple language versions, platforms, or database engines simultaneously. Deep forge integration connects to GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Forgejo, and Bitbucket via OAuth and webhooks, triggering pipelines on push, pull request, tag, deployment, and cron events. The plugin ecosystem inherits compatibility with the Drone plugin library — over 100 plugins for Docker builds, S3 uploads, SSH deployment, Slack and Telegram notifications, Helm deployments, and more. The server-agent architecture separates the web UI, API, and scheduler from pipeline execution, enabling horizontal scaling by adding agents across multiple machines or architectures including ARM. Secrets management supports global, organization, and repository-level scopes with approval workflows for forked repository pipelines. The admin web UI provides user management, agent monitoring, and queue control. Docker Compose deployment provisions the complete stack in under five minutes. Running on a dedicated VPS on RepoCloud with guaranteed CPU, RAM, and SSD, full root SSH access, and a browser serial console. Apache 2.0 licensed.
Benefits
- Container Isolated Reproducible Builds
- Every pipeline step runs in an isolated Docker container with clean teardown. No host contamination, no dependency conflicts — builds are reproducible across any agent or environment.
- Multi Forge Git Integration
- Native OAuth and webhook integration with GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Forgejo, and Bitbucket. Trigger pipelines on push, pull request, tag, deployment, and scheduled cron events.
- Extremely Lightweight Resource Footprint
- The server consumes approximately 50MB RAM and the agent another 50MB. Run a complete CI/CD platform on minimal hardware including Raspberry Pi and ARM devices.
- Open Source Apache Licensed Fork
- Community-driven fork of Drone CI that remained fully open source under Apache 2.0 after Drone moved commercial. No feature limitations, no enterprise paywalls, no vendor lock-in.
Features
- YAML Pipeline Configuration
- Define multi-step pipelines with conditional when filters, step dependencies, service containers, environment variables, and secret injection in simple YAML configuration files.
- Matrix Build Support
- Test across multiple language versions, database engines, or platform architectures simultaneously. Matrix variables interpolate into pipeline steps with up to 27 axes per workflow.
- Plugin Ecosystem Compatibility
- Over 100 plugins from the Drone and Woodpecker ecosystems for Docker builds, S3 uploads, SSH deployment, Slack notifications, Helm charts, and Telegram alerts.
- Multi Backend Execution
- Execute pipelines via Docker, Kubernetes, or Local backends. Scale horizontally by adding agents across x86_64 and ARM architectures on distributed machines.
- Secrets and Approval Workflows
- Global, organization, and repository-level secret management with approval gates for forked repository pipelines to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive credentials.
- Admin Web Dashboard
- Browser-based web UI for monitoring pipeline execution, managing repositories, viewing real-time build logs, administering users, controlling agents, and pausing task queues.