Can I run Kestra on air-gapped or on-premise environments?

Yes, both Open Source and Enterprise editions can be deployed on-premise, including air-gapped networks. The Enterprise edition includes features specifically for such secure environments.

How does Kestra handle workflow versioning and CI/CD?

Kestra flows are defined as YAML files. You can use Git integration to version, review, and promote flows across environments (dev, staging, prod). The platform supports draft revisions and can be triggered via API for CI/CD pipelines.

What databases are supported for the queue and repository?

The queue and repository can run on PostgreSQL or MySQL out of the box. The Enterprise edition adds support for Kafka, Redis, and AMQP for the queue backend to meet higher scalability or specific infrastructure needs.

How do I trigger a flow after another one finishes?

Use a Flow Trigger. You can configure a flow to automatically start upon the successful, failed, or terminated execution of another flow, allowing for easy chaining of workflows.

What is the MCP Server and how is it used with AI?

The MCP (Model Context Protocol) Server exposes any Kestra flow as a tool for AI agents. This allows LLM-driven agents to invoke complex, governed workflows as part of their reasoning loop, driving automation from natural language.

Does Kestra support running tasks in containers?

Yes. Through Task Runners in the Enterprise edition, you can execute tasks (like Python scripts or custom binaries) in isolated containers or VMs on Kubernetes or cloud batch services, ensuring clean, reproducible environments.

Directory/Automation/Workflow Orchestration/Kestra

Kestra

Kestra is an open-source, declarative workflow orchestration platform designed for engineering teams. It enables you to build, run, and govern business-critical workflows—data pipelines, infrastructure automation, and AI/ML pipelines—from a single, unified engine. It's built for production from day one, featuring an event-driven architecture, a rich plugin ecosystem (2,000+), and native support for both code and no-code editors. The platform is language and tool agnostic, allowing you to orchestrate SQL, Python, shell scripts, Terraform, dbt, Spark, or custom tools within the same workflow. It scales from a single team to enterprise-wide multi-tenant deployments, offering enterprise-grade features like RBAC, audit logs, and secrets management in its Enterprise Edition.

Automation

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Added on

Sep 18, 2026

Open SourceYAML Workflows2,000+ PluginsEvent-DrivenMulti-CloudAI CopilotEnterprise Governance

Product information

Everything worth knowing about Kestra

The complete picture — from everyday features to the technical detail builders and IT folks dig for.

Core features

What it actually does

Declarative Workflows in Code

Define workflows, triggers, and dependencies as YAML code. Version them, review them, and promote them across environments like Infrastructure as Code.

2,000+ Plugins

Orchestrate SQL, Python, shell, APIs, Terraform, dbt, Spark, or custom tools. Integrates with cloud, data, infrastructure, and SaaS tools without custom glue code.

Code & No-Code Editors

Write YAML directly or use a guided form editor; both stay in sync. Empowers developers and non-developers to collaborate in a single tool.

Event-Driven Scheduling

Trigger workflows via cron schedules, events, webhooks, or messages. A single engine for batch and event-driven processing.

Agentic AI Copilot

Generate and edit flows from natural language prompts. Run autonomous AI agents with memory, tools, and guardrails. Expose flows as tools via MCP Server.

Technical capabilities

Multi-Cloud & Air-Gapped Deployment

Deploy on your own infrastructure, cloud, Kubernetes, or air-gapped environments. Full control over networking, data locality, and security boundaries.

Queue Backed by PostgreSQL or MySQL

Run the queue and repository on PostgreSQL or MySQL for production-grade reliability, with nothing else to operate for core orchestration.

Must watch videos

2:18

Tutorial2:18

Versioned Documentation for Kestra

Now you can view older versions of the documentation straight from the website. Previously, this was only possible from in-app but now you can access it with a drop down in the corner of the docs. This also works for plugins too! Like, and Subscribe for more quick guides on using Kestra! ---------- 📖 Read the documentation: https://go.kestra.io/docs ⭐ Start your journey with Kestra: https://go.kestra.io/github 🚀 Join the Kestra Community: https://go.kestra.io/slack For more information, visit Kestra's Website: https://go.kestra.io/

Install Plugins Only When You Use them: Auto Install + Download

2:07

Tutorial2:07

Install Plugins Only When You Use them: Auto Install + Download

The default image bundles every plugin at its latest version. That is convenient and it is over 3GB, which is a genuinely bad first experience: almost every product evaluator mentioned image size as a drawback of onboarding. 2.0 splits it. Every tag has a `-slim` twin, so `kestra/kestra:latest-slim` is the lean core and you add what you need. This means when you try and use a plugin, it will auto install when you save your flow! Like, and Subscribe for more quick guides on using Kestra! ---------- 📖 Read the documentation: https://go.kestra.io/docs ⭐ Start your journey with Kestra: https://go.kestra.io/github 🚀 Join the Kestra Community: https://go.kestra.io/slack For more information, visit Kestra's Website: https://go.kestra.io/

Plugin Artifacts: Plugins Can Ship Their Own UI

2:37

Tutorial2:37

Plugin Artifacts: Plugins Can Ship Their Own UI

Artifacts let a plugin render a rich, domain specific view inside Kestra, before and after a run, with no extra YAML in anyone’s flow. Four kinds shipped: data tables previewing Parquet, CSV, ION and Avro with local filtering, data summaries with row counts and per-column statistics, dependency graphs for dbt models and Ansible trees and Terraform plans, and topology sub-nodes that decompose a task into its real steps with per-step timing. Check out the docs page for more information: https://go.kestra.io/plugin-artifacts 0:00 - Introduction 0:12 - What is Plugin Artifacts? 1:44 - Build Plugin Artifacts 2:24 - Summary Like, and Subscribe for more quick guides on using Kestra! ---------- 📖 Read the documentation: https://go.kestra.io/docs ⭐ Start your journey with Kestra: https://go.kestra.io/github 🚀 Join the Kestra Community: https://go.kestra.io/slack For more information, visit Kestra's Website: https://go.kestra.io/

Who uses it

Real use cases, no hype

Data Pipeline Orchestration

Run ingestion, transformations (dbt, Spark), and quality checks in unified, versioned workflows.

Infrastructure Automation

Standardize Terraform, Ansible, and CI/CD runs across hybrid/air-gapped environments with governance.

AI Workflow Orchestration

Operationalize RAG pipelines, model evaluation, and deployment with built-in observability and control.

Cross-Cloud ETL

Trigger self-healing data transfers between clouds (e.g., Azure Blob to BigQuery) on events or schedules.

Business Process Automation

Create self-service apps with UI forms that trigger backend workflows, fully recorded and auditable.

Event-Driven Microservices

React to webhooks, messages, or file changes with complex business logic flows instead of simple scripts.

Batch Processing at Scale

Execute large-scale, stateful batch jobs with built-in retries, parallelism, and resource management.

What's great

Declarative YAML workflows
2,000+ plugins for broad integration
Language & tool agnostic execution
Scalable from single team to multi-tenant

Technical strengths

Production-grade with retries, backfills, error handling
Flexible queue backend (Postgres, MySQL, Kafka, Redis, AMQP)
Built-in AI Copilot (Gemini) & MCP Server for agents
Native Git integration for flow versioning & CI/CD

Where it falls short

Enterprise features (RBAC, SSO, audit logs) require paid edition
Steeper learning curve than simpler cron-based tools
Cloud Edition is still in 'Request Access' phase
Documentation can be dense for initial onboarding

Technical limitations

Limited native support for some niche SaaS connectors in OSS
Worker group & task runner setup requires infrastructure knowledge

For technical folks

The deep-dive specs

FAQ

Includes technical Q&A

Open Source provides the core orchestration engine with unlimited flows and executions. Enterprise adds governance (RBAC, SSO, audit logs), advanced infrastructure (worker groups, flexible queues), and dedicated support.