# berkshelf/berkshelf

A Chef Cookbook manager

Repository: https://github.com/berkshelf/berkshelf
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/berkshelf
Language: Ruby
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2024-08-14T18:37:00+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5237, "days_push": 749, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1069, forks 310 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:27.729611+00:00)

## What it is
Berkshelf is a CLI tool for managing Chef Infra cookbooks and their dependencies, resolving and fetching them from sources like the Chef Supermarket. It is effectively deprecated, with only minimal maintenance to keep it shipping, and users are advised to migrate to Chef Policyfiles.

## Use cases
- manage chef cookbook dependencies
- resolve and download cookbooks from chef supermarket
- vendor cookbooks for a chef run
- lock cookbook versions for reproducible chef runs
- manage berksfile dependencies for infrastructure code

## When to choose
- you maintain an existing chef codebase that already uses Berkshelf
- you need to keep legacy chef cookbook workflows running
- your organization has not yet migrated to Policyfiles

## When to avoid
- you are starting a new chef project - use Policyfiles instead
- you need actively maintained tooling with bugfixes and support
- you want a general-purpose dependency manager outside the chef ecosystem

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: package-manager, cli, developer-tools, dependency-audit
- domain: developer-tools, infrastructure-as-code
- platform: cli, ruby, cross-platform
- tags: chef, cookbook-manager, infrastructure-as-code, ruby, deprecated, configuration-management, devops, automation

## Member repositories
- berkshelf/berkshelf (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:27.729611+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:54:25.132172+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/berkshelf/berkshelf (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:27.729611+00:00, sha 86aaa93b920a)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.