# rkt/rkt

[Project ended] rkt is a pod-native container engine for Linux. It is composable, secure, and built on standards.

Repository: https://github.com/rkt/rkt
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/rkt
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: rkt, go, containers, oci, pods
Archived: true
Last push: 2020-02-24T14:16:05+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4313, "days_push": 2382, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 8766, forks 872 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:25.690981+00:00)

## What it is
rkt is a pod-native container engine for Linux, designed to be secure, composable, and built on open standards like appc, CNI, and OCI. Development has officially ended and the repository is archived.

## Use cases
- run application containers on linux
- run pods of containers with strong isolation
- run containers in hardware-isolated VMs
- run docker and oci images with a secure container engine
- integrate container runtime with systemd or kubernetes

## When to choose
- you need a historical reference implementation of the appc pod specification
- you maintain a legacy system already built on rkt

## When to avoid
- starting any new project - the project is ended and unmaintained
- you need security patches or bug fixes
- you want a modern OCI-compliant container engine - use podman, containerd, or docker instead

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: abandoned
- function: container-runtime, cli, security, networking
- domain: cloud-computing, security
- platform: go, cli
- tags: container-engine, pods, oci, appc, cni, archived, coreos, containers, devops, linux

## Member repositories
- rkt/rkt (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:25.690981+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 2026-08-29T17:25:14.446920+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/rkt/rkt (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:25.690981+00:00, sha 3952ead7b612)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.