hashicorp/packer
Packer is a tool for creating identical machine images for multiple platforms from a single source configuration. observed · 2026-08-28
Health v2 · maintenance only
93/100
- Activity 99
- Release rhythm 82
- Longevity 100
Flags: no_license
How is this computed?
round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10) — computed 2026-09-02. Adoption (stars, forks) is never an input.
- gap_med: 43.5
- age_days: 4911
- days_rel: 40
- days_push: 7
- n_releases_24m: 13
Adoption not part of the score
15768 stars · 3334 forks observed · 2026-08-28
What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-29, confidence not recorded
HashiCorp Packer is a CLI tool that builds identical machine images (AMIs, VMDK, Docker images, etc.) for multiple platforms in parallel from a single HCL2 or JSON template. It supports many cloud and virtualization targets through a plugin ecosystem and integrates with HCP Packer for image metadata management.
Use cases
- build golden images for aws ec2
- create machine images for multiple clouds from one config
- automate ami builds in ci pipeline
- build docker and vm images from a template
- manage image lifecycle and versions across teams
- create pre-configured os images with software installed
When to choose
- you need reproducible, identical machine images across multiple platforms
- you want to bake software into images rather than configure at boot
- you run an image pipeline feeding Terraform or Vagrant
- you need parallel builds for many cloud providers
When to avoid
- you only need runtime configuration management (use Ansible, Chef, or Puppet)
- you want to provision infrastructure rather than images (use Terraform)
- you need a fully open-source license - Packer is BUSL-1.1
- you need container orchestration rather than image building
Facets
cli-tool · maturity stable
infrastructure-as-code deployment configuration-management cli workflow-automation cloud-computing infrastructure-as-code self-hosted windows cli go cross-platform cloud machine-images golden-images hashicorp hcl2 ami vm-images image-pipeline busl devops automation linux macos
10 sources
- readme: https://github.com/hashicorp/packer · fetched 2026-08-28 · 583f2449736d
- homepage: https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer · fetched 2026-08-29 · 20e691601358
- site_page: https://developer.hashicorp.com/hcp/docs/vault-radar · fetched 2026-08-29 · 558d122b761a
- site_page: https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/install · fetched 2026-08-29 · ac9026bcd8ff
- site_page: https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/docs · fetched 2026-08-29 · f42b276a71cb
- site_page: https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/docs/intro · fetched 2026-08-29 · 29f116e6a7a0
- site_page: https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/docs/templates · fetched 2026-08-29 · cb0c45a159d3
- site_page: https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/docs/commands · fetched 2026-08-29 · 885196453de3
- site_page: https://developer.hashicorp.com/hcp/docs/packer · fetched 2026-08-29 · e418532340a4
- site_page: https://developer.hashicorp.com/packer/integrations · fetched 2026-08-29 · 7276dab3ec9e
Member repositories
| Repository | Role | Health v2 |
|---|---|---|
| hashicorp/packer | main | 93 |
For agents
markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="hashicorp/packer")
Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00 · Report a problem