What is Woodpecker CI used for?

Woodpecker CI is a lightweight, extensible CI/CD engine that runs pipelines in containers, using SQLite by default and used as the main CI at Codeberg. It is a good fit for self-hosted CI for Git forges, lightweight pipelines on small servers, and community and open-source project builds.

Is Woodpecker CI open source?

Yes. Woodpecker CI is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at woodpecker-ci/woodpecker and is written mainly in Go.

Is Woodpecker CI free?

Yes. Woodpecker CI is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host Woodpecker CI?

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

What is Woodpecker CI an alternative to?

Woodpecker CI is an open-source alternative to GitHub Actions, Travis CI, CircleCI and AWS CodePipeline. Other open-source alternatives to GitHub Actions include Jenkins, Semaphore and Harness.

Is Woodpecker CI actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Woodpecker CI was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v3.18.1, published on 8 September 2026. The project has 7.9k stars on GitHub.

Woodpecker CI: open-source alternative to GitHub Actions

About Woodpecker CI

Woodpecker is a simple CI/CD engine with a plugin system for extending what pipelines can do. It can be installed in several ways, including Docker and Kubernetes, and runs with SQLite as the default database, so a small setup needs little more than a server and one or more agents.

The README says the server needs around 100 MB of memory and the agent about 30 MB when idle, which makes it suitable for modest hardware. Plugins are browsed on a dedicated overview website and include both core-team and community-maintained ones. Translations are managed on a self-hosted Weblate instance, and the project is supported through Open Collective and GitHub Sponsors.

Woodpecker is written in Go and licensed under Apache-2.0, with documentation under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. Codeberg, a Git hosting platform focused on privacy and free software, uses it as its main CI/CD engine. It suits teams and individuals who self-host Git and want a lean container-based pipeline runner.

Key features

Container-based CI/CD pipelines
SQLite by default for small installs
Plugin system with community plugins
Low idle memory for server and agent
Docker and Kubernetes installation
Translations managed in Weblate

Good fit for

→Self-hosted CI for Git forges
→Lightweight pipelines on small servers
→Community and open-source project builds

Built with: Go; Docker; Kubernetes
Tags: ci-cd; continuous-integration; devops; docker; kubernetes; self-hosted; pipelines; golang

Woodpecker CI: questions and answers

What is Woodpecker CI used for?: Woodpecker CI is a lightweight, extensible CI/CD engine that runs pipelines in containers, using SQLite by default and used as the main CI at Codeberg. It is a good fit for self-hosted CI for Git forges, lightweight pipelines on small servers, and community and open-source project builds.
Is Woodpecker CI open source?: Yes. Woodpecker CI is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at woodpecker-ci/woodpecker and is written mainly in Go.
Is Woodpecker CI free?: Yes. Woodpecker CI is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host Woodpecker CI?: Yes. Woodpecker CI can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Woodpecker CI an alternative to?: Woodpecker CI is an open-source alternative to GitHub Actions, Travis CI, CircleCI and AWS CodePipeline. Other open-source alternatives to GitHub Actions include Jenkins, Semaphore and Harness.
Is Woodpecker CI actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Woodpecker CI was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v3.18.1, published on 8 September 2026. The project has 7.9k stars on GitHub.