About Dagger
Dagger is an open source CI engine that runs build and test pipelines written as code. The same pipeline can run on a laptop and in a CI service, and it caches work between runs.
What it does
Dagger lets you define pipelines as regular code rather than in YAML or a proprietary language. You run checks locally first and then in CI after you push. Dagger Cloud can run the pipelines automatically after each push. The site says the tool is built to give AI coding agents guardrails and context, so their changes go through the same checks as human changes.
Key features
- Pipelines written as regular code
- The same checks run locally and in CI
- Caching to speed up repeated runs
- Dagger Cloud for automated runs
- Portable across machines and CI systems
Who it's for
Platform engineers and teams with slow CI pipelines. Developers who want build and test steps they can run on their own machine will also find it useful.
Pricing and good to know
The engine is open source under the Apache-2.0 license. The hosted Dagger Cloud service is a separate product, and its pricing is listed on the company website. Teams that already use a homegrown CI setup can move their steps into Dagger gradually.
Highlights
- Write CI pipelines as regular code
- Run the same checks on a laptop and in CI
- Reuse cached steps across runs
- Run pipelines automatically with Dagger Cloud
- Move checks between machines and CI systems
