# etcd

Distributed reliable key-value store for the most critical data of a distributed system

Repository: https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/etcd
Homepage: https://etcd.io
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: etcd, raft, distributed-systems, kubernetes, go, database, key-value, consensus, distributed-database, cncf
Last push: 2026-08-26T15:33:59+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 97/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 94, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4806, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 41, "gap_med": 4.0, "n_releases_24m": 47}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 52180, forks 10469 (observed 2026-08-28T04:12:11.994601+00:00)

## What it is
etcd is a distributed, reliable key-value store built on the Raft consensus algorithm, designed for storing the most critical data of distributed systems. It exposes a gRPC API with TLS security, supports watch and lease primitives, and serves as the primary datastore for Kubernetes.

## Use cases
- store configuration for a distributed system with strong consistency
- run a highly available key-value store using Raft consensus
- back Kubernetes cluster state
- implement distributed locks and leader election
- watch for configuration changes in real time across services
- coordinate service discovery among microservices

## When to choose
- you need strongly consistent, replicated metadata storage for critical infrastructure
- you are running Kubernetes or building similar control planes
- you need watch/lease primitives for coordination and service discovery

## When to avoid
- you need a general-purpose high-throughput database or large datasets
- your workload is write-heavy beyond etcd's modest throughput limits
- you only need simple caching without consistency guarantees

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: stable
- function: database, rpc, cli, caching, configuration-management, service-discovery
- domain: databases, microservices, infrastructure-as-code, cloud-computing
- platform: go, self-hosted, cross-platform
- tags: key-value-store, raft-consensus, grpc-api, cncf, coordination, watch-mechanism, kubernetes-backend, containers, devops, linux, macos, docker, kubernetes

## Member repositories
- etcd-io/etcd (main) score 97
- etcd-io/jetcd (sdk) score 71

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:12:11.994601+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 2026-08-29T16:19:40.537253+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/etcd-io/etcd (fetched 2026-08-28T04:12:11.994601+00:00, sha 338460f533b3)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.