# garden-io/garden

Automation for Kubernetes development and testing. Spin up production-like environments for development, testing, and CI on demand. Use the same configuration and workflows at every step of the process. Speed up your builds and test runs via shared result caching

Repository: https://github.com/garden-io/garden
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/garden
Homepage: https://garden.io
Language: TypeScript
License: MPL-2.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: kubernetes, developer-tools, containers, testing-tools, testing
Last push: 2026-08-24T10:16:21+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 99/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 99, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3196, "days_push": 9, "days_rel": 9, "gap_med": 8.0, "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 3609, forks 296 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:11.612968+00:00)

## What it is
Garden is a DevOps automation CLI for developing and testing Kubernetes applications faster. It spins up production-like environments on demand for development, testing, and CI, using a single configuration across all stages, with smart caching to speed up builds and test runs.

## Use cases
- spin up production-like kubernetes environments for development and testing on demand
- run integration tests against ephemeral preview environments in CI
- speed up docker builds and test runs with shared team caching
- use one configuration for local dev, CI, and production deploys
- create preview environments automatically on every pull request
- migrate from docker compose to kubernetes development
- orchestrate builds, deploys, and tests as a dependency graph

## When to choose
- your team develops or tests Kubernetes apps and wants on-demand, production-like environments
- you want identical configuration and workflows across local dev, CI, and production
- slow container builds and repeated test runs are hurting developer productivity
- you need ephemeral preview environments per pull request
- you want team-wide caching of build and test results

## When to avoid
- your stack does not use Kubernetes or containers
- you only need simple CI/CD pipelines without environment orchestration
- you prefer lightweight tools like plain kubectl, Helm, or docker compose for small projects
- you are unwilling to adopt garden.yml configuration across your repositories

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: developer-tools, deployment, ci-cd, testing, caching, container-orchestration, workflow-automation, cli
- domain: developer-tools, cloud-computing, testing
- platform: cli, cross-platform, windows
- tags: kubernetes-development, preview-environments, devops-automation, build-caching, helm, terraform, pulumi, ephemeral-environments, devops, containers, kubernetes, docker, macos, linux

## Member repositories
- garden-io/garden (main) score 99

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:11.612968+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 2026-08-29T18:33:40.217967+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/garden-io/garden (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:11.612968+00:00, sha 41648f25bc27)
  - homepage: https://garden.io (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:12.618378+00:00, sha e372ac5b8611)
  - site_page: https://docs.garden.io/bonsai-0.13 (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:12.627840+00:00, sha 9fda5d917d15)
  - site_page: https://docs.garden.io/getting-started/quickstart (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:12.629627+00:00, sha c89a912c1a6b)
  - site_page: https://docs.garden.io/getting-started/basics (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:12.631533+00:00, sha 6aa06b84af4a)
  - site_page: https://docs.garden.io/getting-started/next-steps (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:12.633156+00:00, sha 278e9b2bf0f1)
  - site_page: https://docs.garden.io/features/remote-container-builder (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:12.634804+00:00, sha d9b36d2c4308)
  - site_page: https://docs.garden.io/features/team-caching (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:12.636333+00:00, sha a2a5b7917c53)
  - site_page: https://docs.garden.io/features/variables-and-templating (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:12.637959+00:00, sha c2232aaf2646)
  - site_page: https://docs.garden.io/features/remote-variables (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:12.640102+00:00, sha 2c95f4b9e806)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.