# dagucloud/dagu

Self-hostable workflow orchestrator for teams whose main work isn't orchestration. Declarative YAML over your scripts, SSH commands, containers, etc; keep workflows separate from business logic. One binary, no database, runs on limited H/W resources. Alternative to Airflow / Cron / Job Scheduler.

Repository: https://github.com/dagucloud/dagu
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/dagu
Homepage: https://dagu.sh
Language: Go
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: cron, workflow-engine, workflow-scheduler, workflow-orchestration, devops, data-pipeline, job-scheduler, task-automation, durable-execution, human-in-the-loop, mcp-server, self-hosted, ai-agents, airflow-alternative, dag, llm, agentic-workflows, ai-workflows, mcp, mcp-gateway
Last push: 2026-08-26T16:35:54+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 87, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1594, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 8, "gap_med": 1.0, "n_releases_24m": 173}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3808, forks 317 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:20.361588+00:00)

## What it is
Dagu is a self-hostable, local-first workflow orchestrator that runs DAGs defined in declarative YAML over existing shell scripts, Docker containers, Kubernetes Jobs, SSH commands, and HTTP/SQL calls. It ships as a single Go binary with a built-in Web UI, cron scheduling, retries, human tasks, run history, and an MCP server, requiring no external database or message broker.

## Use cases
- schedule nightly data pipeline jobs with retries and dependencies
- replace cron jobs with a workflow engine that has logs and run history
- orchestrate docker containers and kubernetes jobs from yaml
- run remote commands over ssh on a fleet of servers
- add human approval steps to automated workflows
- control and inspect workflows from an ai agent via mcp
- self-host a lightweight airflow alternative on limited hardware

## When to choose
- you want scheduling, retries, and dependencies around existing scripts without rewriting them into a framework
- you need a single-binary, no-database orchestrator for on-prem, air-gapped, or edge environments
- your team's main work isn't orchestration and you want a simple web UI over cron
- you want to trigger or monitor workflows from LLM agents via MCP

## When to avoid
- you need a large ecosystem of prebuilt connectors and a rich Python DSL like Airflow's
- you require enterprise features such as SSO, RBAC, or audit logging without a paid license
- you need a fully managed cloud orchestration service

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: workflow-automation, scheduling, webhook, mcp, cli, developer-tools
- domain: self-hosted, developer-tools
- platform: windows, self-hosted, go, cli
- tags: workflow-engine, dag, cron-scheduler, airflow-alternative, job-scheduler, yaml-workflows, single-binary, no-database, human-in-the-loop, durable-execution, mcp-server, web-ui, ssh-execution, data-pipelines, automation, devops, data-engineering, ai-agents, linux, macos, docker, kubernetes

## Member repositories
- dagucloud/dagu (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:20.361588+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 2026-08-29T18:26:39.273396+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/dagucloud/dagu (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:20.361588+00:00, sha 513b55a03c41)
  - homepage: https://dagu.sh (fetched 2026-08-29T09:21:41.307669+00:00, sha ca7f2513e653)
  - site_page: https://docs.dagu.sh (fetched 2026-08-29T09:21:41.317205+00:00, sha 733a16daceee)
  - site_page: https://docs.dagu.sh/getting-started/installation/linux (fetched 2026-08-29T09:21:41.320712+00:00, sha 6da1f7893499)
  - site_page: https://docs.dagu.sh/getting-started/installation/macos (fetched 2026-08-29T09:21:41.322213+00:00, sha 2a30fd035482)
  - site_page: https://docs.dagu.sh/getting-started/installation/windows (fetched 2026-08-29T09:21:41.324254+00:00, sha 0609eef9d8a3)
  - site_page: https://docs.dagu.sh/getting-started/installation/docker (fetched 2026-08-29T09:21:41.325961+00:00, sha e55012218923)
  - site_page: https://docs.dagu.sh/getting-started/installation/kubernetes (fetched 2026-08-29T09:21:41.327538+00:00, sha 84f4f537a304)
  - site_page: https://docs.dagu.sh/mcp/quickstart (fetched 2026-08-29T09:21:41.329177+00:00, sha f5a084215f07)
  - site_page: https://dagu.sh/pricing (fetched 2026-08-29T09:21:41.319078+00:00, sha 51a118826812)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.