# itamae-kitchen/itamae

Configuration management tool inspired by Chef, but simpler and lightweight. Formerly known as Lightchef.

Repository: https://github.com/itamae-kitchen/itamae
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/itamae
Homepage: https://itamae.kitchen/
Language: Ruby
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: ruby, chef, infrastructure, infrastructure-as-code, itamae
Last push: 2026-08-14T13:08:54+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 86/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 97, release rhythm 64, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4636, "days_push": 19, "days_rel": 26, "gap_med": 230, "n_releases_24m": 2}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1132, forks 119 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:42.690070+00:00)

## What it is
Itamae is a simple and lightweight configuration management tool for Ruby, inspired by Chef but with a simpler, Chef-like DSL that is not compatible with Chef. It applies idempotent recipes to local or remote machines via SSH or Vagrant.

## Use cases
- provision servers with idempotent recipes
- install and configure packages like nginx via code
- apply configuration to remote hosts over ssh
- manage vagrant vm provisioning
- lightweight alternative to chef for infra as code

## When to choose
- you want Chef-like configuration management without Chef's complexity
- you prefer writing recipes in Ruby
- you need a lightweight tool for local, SSH, or Vagrant provisioning

## When to avoid
- you need Chef compatibility or its ecosystem of cookbooks
- you need agent-based or large-scale fleet orchestration
- your stack is not Ruby-friendly

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: configuration-management, infrastructure-as-code, cli
- domain: infrastructure-as-code, self-hosted
- platform: ruby, cli
- tags: chef-inspired, provisioning, idempotent, server-configuration, ssh, devops, automation, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- itamae-kitchen/itamae (main) score 86

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:42.690070+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 2026-08-30T06:37:57.823159+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/itamae-kitchen/itamae (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:42.690070+00:00, sha b227e73d1b0c)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.