apache/openwhisk

Apache OpenWhisk is a serverless compute platform that manages the execution of user-defined functions (actions) across a distributed cluster. The system coordinates the scheduling, containerization, and invocation of these actions using a new scheduler architecture backed by etcd and Kafka, while supporting diverse runtimes including Docker, Kubernetes, and YARN. It provides a comprehensive set of storage backends for activations and artifacts, such as CouchDB, MongoDB, CosmosDB, and ElasticSearch, alongside monitoring and administrative tooling for cluster management.

This period focused on removing obsolete components, including the Python CLI, legacy build systems, and deprecated service integrations, while establishing modern infrastructure through Gradle, Ansible, and Pekko. The project simultaneously standardized development workflows, updated runtime environments, and refactored deployment and testing structures to support a cleaner, more maintainable codebase.

89 changes

This period focused on migrating the HTTP service layer and core components from Akka to Apache Pekko, while introducing a new scheduler architecture with pluggable message connectors and container management. The work also established a comprehensive test suite for these new components, including high-availability, performance, and database storage implementations.

71 changes

This period focused on a major architectural shift in the scheduler, introducing a new gRPC-based system with memory queues, etcd coordination, and container lifecycle management. The team also expanded storage backends to include ElasticSearch, Azure Blob Storage, and MongoDB, while adding YARN and standalone server capabilities. Additionally, monitoring services for CosmosDB and user events were introduced to improve observability.

42 changes

apache/openwhisk was measured the same way every project in this corpus was: the same rubric, at a pinned commit, with the result published in full. Point the surveyor at a repository you know and see whether you agree with it.