Chef is a configuration management platform that defines infrastructure state using Ruby-based cookbooks and recipes. It provides a flexible, programmatic approach to infrastructure automation with a mature ecosystem for testing and cookbook sharing.
Note: Progress Chef (commercial) now offers enterprise support. Open-source Chef Infra remains available under Apache-2.0.
- Teams standardizing host configuration through code
- Complex configuration logic benefiting from Ruby DSL flexibility
- Organizations with existing Chef Server or Chef Infra investments
- Test-driven infrastructure with InSpec compliance
- Cookbook/recipe model - Reusable Ruby-based configuration logic
- Chef Infra Client - Agent-based convergence on managed nodes
- Chef Server - Central configuration and policy management
- Chef Automate - Enterprise workflow and compliance dashboard
- Policyfile workflow - Immutable policy promotion
- Test Kitchen - Testing framework for cookbook development
- InSpec - Compliance and security testing
- Habitat - Application automation (bundled with Chef)
- Core: Ruby
- Client: Chef Infra Client (Ruby)
- Server: Chef Server (Erlang, Ruby)
- DSL: Ruby-based domain-specific language
- Testing: Test Kitchen, InSpec, ChefSpec
- Apache-2.0 (Chef Infra components, open-source)
- Commercial (Chef Automate, enterprise features)
- ✅ Active development (Progress Software)
- Latest Chef Infra Client: 18.9.4 (January 14, 2026)
- Chef Infra Client 19: Released February 6, 2026
- Chef Infra Server: 15.10.91 (February 5, 2026)
- License: Apache-2.0 (open-source components)
- Commercial: Progress Chef enterprise support available
| Product |
Latest Version |
Purpose |
| Chef Infra Client |
18.9.4 / 19.x |
Node configuration |
| Chef Infra Server |
15.10.91 |
Central management |
| Chef Workstation |
22.x |
Development tools |
| InSpec |
5.x |
Compliance testing |
| Test Kitchen |
3.x |
Testing framework |
¶ History and References
- Official Site: https://www.chef.io/
- Documentation: https://docs.chef.io/
- GitHub Repository: https://github.com/chef/chef
- Supermarket: https://supermarket.chef.io/
- InSpec: https://www.inspec.io/