# canonical/cloud-init

Official upstream for the cloud-init: cloud instance initialization

Repository: https://github.com/canonical/cloud-init
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/cloud-init
Homepage: https://cloud-init.io/
Language: Python
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Topics: cloud-init, python, hacktoberfest
Last push: 2026-08-26T18:03:58+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 94/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 83, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4347, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 35, "gap_med": 44, "n_releases_24m": 12}
- 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 3793, forks 1124 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:18.887361+00:00)

## What it is
cloud-init is the industry-standard multi-distribution tool for initializing cloud instances at boot time. It detects the cloud it runs on, reads cloud metadata plus optional user and vendor data, and configures the system accordingly (hostname, SSH keys, networking, mounts, etc.).

## Use cases
- automatically configure new cloud VMs on first boot
- set hostname, locale, and SSH keys from user data
- initialize instances identically across AWS, Azure, GCP, and private clouds
- run boot scripts and package installation on fresh cloud images
- configure network and storage devices during instance provisioning
- customize bare-metal and FreeBSD/Linux system images at boot

## When to choose
- you provision cloud instances from identical images and need per-instance customization
- you want a vendor-neutral, multi-distribution initialization standard supported by all major clouds
- you need declarative boot-time setup of users, SSH keys, networking, and mounts

## When to avoid
- you need runtime configuration management or drift correction rather than first-boot setup (use Ansible, Chef, or Puppet)
- you are configuring Windows instances or non-Unix systems
- you want post-boot application deployment rather than OS-level initialization

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: configuration-management, deployment, developer-tools
- domain: cloud-computing, self-hosted
- platform: bsd, python, cloud
- tags: cloud-instance-initialization, provisioning, user-data, cloud-images, boot-time-configuration, devops, automation, linux

## Member repositories
- canonical/cloud-init (main) score 94

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:18.887361+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 2026-08-29T18:27:02.146761+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/canonical/cloud-init (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:18.887361+00:00, sha 087d08624c16)
  - homepage: https://cloud-init.io/ (fetched 2026-08-29T09:22:03.888816+00:00, sha 52898c1e897f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.