What is NativeLink used for?

NativeLink is a Rust build cache and remote execution server compatible with Bazel, Buck2, Pants and other build systems that speak the remote execution protocol. It is a good fit for speeding up CI for large monorepos, sharing build caches between laptops and CI, and running tests on specialized hardware.

Is NativeLink open source?

Yes. NativeLink is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at TraceMachina/nativelink and is written mainly in Rust.

Yes. NativeLink is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.

Can I self-host NativeLink?

Yes. NativeLink can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is NativeLink an alternative to?

NativeLink is an open-source alternative to Depot and Namespace. Other open-source alternatives to Depot include Earthly and RunsOn.

Is NativeLink actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to NativeLink was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.7.3, published on 1 October 2026. The project has 1.6k stars on GitHub.

NativeLink: open-source alternative to Depot, Namespace

About NativeLink

NativeLink is a high-performance build cache and remote execution server written in Rust. It speeds up compilation and testing by storing build artifacts so unchanged targets are not rebuilt, and by distributing build and test actions across multiple machines, which also helps reduce infrastructure costs for large projects.

It is compatible with Bazel, Soong, Pants, Buck2, Reclient and other build systems that support the remote execution API, and it supports specialized hardware for workloads such as GPU builds and simulation. The project highlights use cases including very large monorepos, robotics and autonomous vehicle stacks, semiconductor design flows and bioinformatics pipelines. It is powered by Nix, and the repository includes files for AI agents.

NativeLink is self-hosted infrastructure that teams deploy for their CI systems and developer laptops, and the README says it is used in production by the company behind it. The repository lists its licence as other, so check the project's terms before adopting it. It suits build and developer-productivity engineers who run large Bazel or Buck2 codebases.

Key features

Shared build cache for build artifacts
Remote execution across multiple machines
Compatible with Bazel, Buck2, and Pants
Support for Soong and Reclient
Specialized hardware support
Rust implementation with Nix tooling

Good fit for

→Speeding up CI for large monorepos
→Sharing build caches between laptops and CI
→Running tests on specialized hardware

Built with: Rust
Tags: build-cache; remote-execution; bazel; buck2; rust; ci; nix; monorepo; build-system

NativeLink: questions and answers

What is NativeLink used for?: NativeLink is a Rust build cache and remote execution server compatible with Bazel, Buck2, Pants and other build systems that speak the remote execution protocol. It is a good fit for speeding up CI for large monorepos, sharing build caches between laptops and CI, and running tests on specialized hardware.
Is NativeLink open source?: Yes. NativeLink is open source under a custom licence. Its source code is on GitHub at TraceMachina/nativelink and is written mainly in Rust.
Is NativeLink free?: Yes. NativeLink is open source, so the software itself is free to use under the terms of its own licence.
Can I self-host NativeLink?: Yes. NativeLink can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is NativeLink an alternative to?: NativeLink is an open-source alternative to Depot and Namespace. Other open-source alternatives to Depot include Earthly and RunsOn.
Is NativeLink actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to NativeLink was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v1.7.3, published on 1 October 2026. The project has 1.6k stars on GitHub.