Woodpecker CI

TAS Score: S3/3 — D5/5 · A3 / T2

Brief Description

Community fork of Drone CI after Harness acquired it and moved it toward a commercial model. Lightweight, pipeline-as-code CI/CD. Native integration with Forgejo, Gitea, GitHub, GitLab. Agent-based architecture — runs pipelines in Docker containers.

Architectural Role

Applications layer. CI/CD pipeline execution. Works alongside Forgejo or any Git host. Pipelines defined in YAML files in the repository — no vendor lock-in on configuration format.

Technical Autonomy

Works without internet
Stores data locally (SQLite or PostgreSQL)
Does not require external accounts
Allows data export (pipeline configs are plain YAML in repo)
Provides offline updates

Philosophical Assessment (whose.world criteria)

Criterion	Status	Comments
Pause	✅	Clean stop; no permanent damage
Exit	✅	Pipeline configs are YAML files in your repo — fully portable
Recoverability	✅	Database backup; stateless agents
Visibility	✅	Apache-2.0, fully auditable
External Dependencies	✅	Runs fully self-contained

Configuration (Minimal)

services:
  woodpecker-server:
    image: woodpeckerci/woodpecker-server:latest
    environment:
      WOODPECKER_OPEN: "true"
      WOODPECKER_HOST: https://ci.yourdomain.com
      WOODPECKER_FORGEJO: "true"
      WOODPECKER_FORGEJO_URL: https://git.yourdomain.com
      WOODPECKER_FORGEJO_CLIENT: your-oauth-client-id
      WOODPECKER_FORGEJO_SECRET: your-oauth-secret
      WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET: changeme
    volumes:
      - woodpecker_data:/var/lib/woodpecker
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"

  woodpecker-agent:
    image: woodpeckerci/woodpecker-agent:latest
    environment:
      WOODPECKER_SERVER: woodpecker-server:9000
      WOODPECKER_AGENT_SECRET: changeme
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock

volumes:
  woodpecker_data:

Alternatives

Alternative	Autonomy	Notes
Jenkins	A3 / T2	More powerful, heavier, larger ecosystem
Forgejo	A3 / T2	Includes built-in Actions CI/CD
GitHub Actions	A0 / T1	Cloud-only; vendor lock-in on syntax

Trajectory

Direction: opening

Woodpecker was created as a community fork of Drone CI after Harness acquired it in 2021 and began moving it toward a commercial model. Apache-2.0 licensed, community-governed, no corporate control. The project has grown rapidly since its fork with an active contributor base. A clear example of the open-source ecosystem self-correcting after a vendor lock-in attempt.

Signal assessment:

Signal	Status	Evidence
License	✅	Apache-2.0; forked to preserve open governance
Feature gating	✅	No paid tier; all features available
Self-hosting	✅	Self-hosting is the only deployment model
Governance	✅	Community-governed; no corporate control; active contributors

Sources

Website: https://woodpecker-ci.org
Documentation: https://woodpecker-ci.org/docs/intro
Repository: https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker
Docker image: woodpeckerci/woodpecker-server
Community: https://matrix.to/#/#woodpecker:matrix.org