Dagger

Dagger is a programmable engine for CI/CD pipelines, founded by Docker co-creator Solomon Hykes with Sam Alba and Andrea Luzzardi. Instead of YAML, you define pipelines as functions in Go, Python, or TypeScript; Dagger executes each step in containers, which means a pipeline that passes locally behaves the same in any CI system. It raised $30 million (including a $20M Series A led by Redpoint) and is open source. The Daggerverse hosts reusable community modules, and it integrates with GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, and others.

The honest picture: Dagger is a pipeline engine, not a deployment orchestrator — teams that expect it to manage SSH deploys or blue-green cutovers end up rebuilding those themselves. Running the Dagger engine alongside Docker adds real overhead on developer machines, its error messages from strict type reflection can be cryptic, and local-first debugging of remote pipelines is still rough. It shines for build/test/release pipelines, less so for the last mile of deployment.

Install the Dagger CLI, then write pipeline functions using the Go, Python, or TypeScript SDK. Run 'dagger call' to execute locally, or wire it into your existing CI runner.