# saltstack/salt

Software to automate the management and configuration of infrastructure and applications at scale.

Repository: https://github.com/saltstack/salt
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/salt
Homepage: https://docs.saltproject.io/salt/install-guide/en/latest/
Language: Python
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: python, configuration-management, remote-execution, infrastructure-management, zeromq, event-stream, event-management, cloud-providers, cloud-management, cloud-provisioning, infrastructure-automation, infrastructure-as-code, infrastructure-as-a-code, iot, edge, cloud, infrastructure
Last push: 2026-08-26T23:36:06+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 98/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 95, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 5673, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 39, "gap_med": 6, "n_releases_24m": 40}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 15637, forks 5611 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:13.087635+00:00)

## What it is
Salt is a Python-based, event-driven automation framework for deploying, configuring, and managing IT infrastructure at scale using a master-minion architecture. It provides configuration management, remote execution, orchestration, and cloud provisioning across servers, VMs, containers, and network devices.

## Use cases
- manage configuration across hundreds of servers
- prevent configuration drift on my fleet
- remotely execute commands on many machines at once
- automate OS and application upgrades
- provision VMs on cloud providers
- build self-healing infrastructure that reacts to events
- manage network device configurations
- enforce desired state with declarative Salt states

## When to choose
- you need scalable, event-driven configuration management across mixed operating systems
- you want remote execution and orchestration in one tool
- you manage heterogeneous infrastructure including network devices and cloud VMs
- you need agent-based automation with fast ZeroMQ transport

## When to avoid
- you only need simple ad-hoc scripting on a handful of machines
- you prefer agentless SSH-based tooling like Ansible
- you want a lightweight declarative-only tool without an event bus
- your team cannot operate a master-minion architecture

## Facets
- artifact type: framework
- maturity: stable
- function: configuration-management, infrastructure-as-code, deployment, workflow-automation, cli
- domain: infrastructure-as-code, cloud-computing, self-hosted, iot
- platform: windows, python, cross-platform, cli
- tags: salt, master-minion, zeromq, event-driven, remote-execution, cloud-provisioning, orchestration, state-management, devops, automation, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- saltstack/salt (main) score 98

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:13.087635+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 2026-08-29T17:05:37.288484+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/saltstack/salt (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:13.087635+00:00, sha ee4d737e8f2d)
  - homepage: https://docs.saltproject.io/salt/install-guide/en/latest/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:47.174717+00:00, sha 79057ebab603)
  - site_page: https://docs.saltproject.io/salt/install-guide/en/latest/topics/configure-master-minion.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:47.200494+00:00, sha 2ee04231e657)
  - site_page: https://docs.saltproject.io/salt/install-guide/en/latest/topics/start-salt-services.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:47.203827+00:00, sha 4c17c674593d)
  - site_page: https://docs.saltproject.io/salt/install-guide/en/latest/topics/overview.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:47.183966+00:00, sha 94585dee015b)
  - site_page: https://docs.saltproject.io/salt/install-guide/en/latest/topics/quickstart.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:47.186050+00:00, sha 33bc9a22244f)
  - site_page: https://docs.saltproject.io/salt/install-guide/en/latest/topics/before-you-start/index.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:47.188848+00:00, sha 7bf98de029d8)
  - site_page: https://docs.saltproject.io/salt/install-guide/en/latest/topics/install-by-operating-system/index.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:47.190857+00:00, sha 6317682a27c4)
  - site_page: https://docs.saltproject.io/salt/install-guide/en/latest/topics/bootstrap.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:47.193772+00:00, sha 3a59a970e248)
  - site_page: https://docs.saltproject.io/salt/install-guide/en/latest/topics/other-install-types/index.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:03:47.196770+00:00, sha 5f1ec9d3b9b8)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.