Screwdriver
Screwdriver is an open-source continuous delivery (CD) and Continuous Integration (CI) platform (software delivery automation) designed to automate build, test, and deployment workflows at scale.
- End-to-end Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines with YAML-defined workflows (software delivery automation)
- Container-based build and execution model using Docker images (containerized build automation)
- Support for event-driven workflows triggered by source control changes and other events (pipeline orchestration)
- Extensible ecosystem with templates, commands, and plugins for reusable pipeline logic (pipeline templating and extensibility)
- Integration with Kubernetes and cloud-native runtimes for executing builds and deployments (cloud-native CI/CD)
More About Screwdriver
Screwdriver is an open-source continuous delivery (CD) and CI platform (software delivery automation) under the Continuous Delivery Foundation that focuses on defining and running pipelines as code for building, testing, and deploying software in a repeatable and automated way.
The platform addresses the problem of coordinating complex delivery workflows across multiple services, repositories, and environments by providing a declarative model for pipelines (pipeline orchestration) defined in a YAML configuration file typically stored alongside the application source code. This approach enables teams to version, review, and manage their build and deployment logic using the same practices applied to application code.
Screwdriver uses a container-based execution model (containerized build automation), where each step in a pipeline runs inside a Docker image. This allows teams to define consistent, isolated build environments, manage dependencies via container images, and run builds on shared infrastructure without dependency conflicts. The system supports workflows that include build, test, artifact publication, and deployment stages, and can coordinate jobs that fan out and fan in across multiple parallel tasks.
In enterprise environments, Screwdriver is used to implement CI/CD for microservices and large-scale distributed systems (software delivery automation). It integrates with source control events such as pull requests and commits to trigger pipelines (event-driven automation), and can promote builds across stages like development, staging, and production. Organizations can enforce standardized workflows by using templates and shared commands (pipeline templating and governance), which allow common build and deployment patterns to be reused across many services while retaining flexibility for team-specific customization.
The platform exposes an Application Programming Interface (API) and a web UI (developer tooling) for managing pipelines, viewing build history, and inspecting logs. It supports configuration of jobs, secrets, and environment variables, and it can run builds on Kubernetes clusters (cloud-native CI/CD) or other container runtimes, aligning with cloud-native infrastructure practices. This design allows Screwdriver to fit into existing container orchestration and cloud environments, using Kubernetes to schedule and run build pods.
Screwdriver’s extensibility model (platform extensibility) includes templates, commands, and plugins that enable integration with external tools for testing, artifact storage, notifications, and deployment. Within a technical taxonomy, Screwdriver is positioned as a CI/CD orchestration platform for pipeline-as-code, container-based builds, and cloud-native software delivery workflows.