# kelseyhightower/confd

Manage local application configuration files using templates and data from etcd or consul

Repository: https://github.com/kelseyhightower/confd
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/confd
Language: Go
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2024-07-16T14:30:09+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4719, "days_push": 778, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 8428, forks 1391 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:21.147865+00:00)

## What it is
confd is a lightweight Go CLI tool that keeps local application configuration files up to date by rendering templates with data from backends like etcd, consul, vault, redis, dynamodb, zookeeper, AWS SSM, or environment variables. It can also reload applications so they pick up configuration changes automatically.

## Use cases
- keep nginx config in sync with etcd service discovery
- render config files from consul key-value data
- manage app configuration with vault secrets
- generate config files from environment variables
- reload services when configuration changes
- centralize configuration for distributed apps

## When to choose
- you store configuration in etcd, consul, vault, or similar backends and need it rendered into local files
- you want a small, single-binary tool with template-based config generation
- you need automatic app reloads on config change

## When to avoid
- you need encrypted template functions like cget, which were removed
- you want a fully featured modern config management system with active development
- you prefer declarative infrastructure-as-code tools like Helm or Terraform

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: maintenance
- function: configuration-management, templating, deployment
- domain: infrastructure-as-code, self-hosted, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cli, go
- tags: etcd, consul, config-templates, service-discovery, env-vars, devops, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- kelseyhightower/confd (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:21.147865+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 2026-08-29T17:27:15.602067+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/kelseyhightower/confd (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:21.147865+00:00, sha b3921e796602)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.