# alibaba/nacos

an easy-to-use dynamic service discovery, configuration and service management platform for building AI cloud native applications.

Repository: https://github.com/alibaba/nacos
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/nacos
Homepage: https://nacos.io
Language: Java
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: nacos, dubbo, kubernetes, istio, spring-cloud, microservices, configuration-management, distributed-configuration, ai-registry, mcp, mcp-registry, a2a-registry, mcp-management, prompt, skills, agent
Last push: 2026-08-26T10:47:31+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 87, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3001, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 6, "gap_med": 31.5, "n_releases_24m": 21}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 33307, forks 13284 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:58.213138+00:00)

## What it is
Nacos is a dynamic service discovery, configuration management, and service management platform for cloud native and AI applications, originally from Alibaba. Version 3.x adds an AI Registry for managing MCP Servers, A2A Agents, Prompts, Skills, and AgentSpec resources alongside classic microservice discovery and config features.

## Use cases
- register and discover microservices in a Spring Cloud or Dubbo architecture
- centrally manage and dynamically update application configuration without redeploying
- manage and discover MCP servers for AI agent applications
- convert existing microservice APIs into MCP services with zero code changes
- run health-checked service discovery for Kubernetes or gRPC workloads
- implement DNS-based service discovery with weighted routing and traffic control
- store and version prompts, skills, and agent specs for AI applications

## When to choose
- you are building Java microservices with Spring Cloud, Dubbo, or Kubernetes and need combined service discovery plus config management
- you need a production-grade registry with health checks, canary releases, rollback, and multi-tenancy
- you want a centralized registry for MCP servers, A2A agents, prompts, and skills in AI agent platforms
- you need proven large-scale operation (Alibaba production, millions of instances) with an active ecosystem

## When to avoid
- you only need simple key-value config storage without service discovery
- your stack is non-JVM and you prefer lightweight alternatives like Consul or etcd with native tooling
- you need a general-purpose AI vector store or model registry rather than an AI resource registry
- you want a fully managed vendor service and cannot operate a self-hosted cluster

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: stable
- function: service-discovery, configuration-management, api-gateway, mcp, monitoring, rate-limiting, self-hosted
- domain: microservices, cloud-computing, large-language-models, self-hosted
- platform: jvm, cloud, self-hosted
- tags: nacos, service-registry, config-center, mcp-registry, a2a-registry, dubbo, spring-cloud, istio, ai-registry, prompt-management, ai-agents, devops, docker, kubernetes, web-server

## Member repositories
- alibaba/nacos (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:58.213138+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 2026-08-29T16:28:28.867612+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/alibaba/nacos (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:58.213138+00:00, sha f295cd863aa4)
  - homepage: https://nacos.io (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:54.572460+00:00, sha dd0771a566de)
  - site_page: https://nacos.io/docs/latest/overview (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:54.575780+00:00, sha 17773b464c5a)
  - site_page: https://nacos.io/docs/next/overview (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:54.578035+00:00, sha c3827ca142a2)
  - site_page: https://nacos.io/docs/v3.1/overview (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:54.579956+00:00, sha 0d4069d80af3)
  - site_page: https://nacos.io/docs/v3.0/overview (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:54.582057+00:00, sha a1a95dfa6f13)
  - site_page: https://nacos.io/docs/v2.5/overview (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:54.584130+00:00, sha d7471c292723)
  - site_page: https://nacos.io/docs/v2.4/overview (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:54.586216+00:00, sha 8e2757591cac)
  - site_page: https://nacos.io/docs/v2.3/what-is-nacos (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:54.588077+00:00, sha bf6e4ddf109d)
  - site_page: https://nacos.io/docs/v2/what-is-nacos (fetched 2026-08-29T07:48:54.590207+00:00, sha 2e8a0e88375d)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.