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Tool Vetting Criteria

Every tool listed on The AltStack is manually reviewed against the criteria below before inclusion. This document exists for transparency — if a tool doesn't meet these standards, it won't be listed regardless of popularity.

Inclusion Criteria

1. Active Maintenance

  • Repository must have commits within the last 6 months
  • Open issues should show maintainer engagement (not abandoned)
  • Projects with a single commit or no release tags are excluded

2. Open Source License

  • Must use a recognized open-source license (MIT, Apache 2.0, GPL, AGPL, MPL, BSD, etc.)
  • "Source available" with restrictive licenses are listed but clearly marked
  • Proprietary tools are only listed as the "replaced by" reference, never as alternatives

3. Self-Hostability

  • Must be deployable on user-owned infrastructure
  • Docker support is strongly preferred but not mandatory
  • Clear installation documentation must exist
  • Tools that require phoning home to a vendor service are flagged

4. Functional Replacement

  • Must genuinely replace or substitute the proprietary tool it's listed against
  • We test core workflows, not just feature checkbox parity
  • A tool listed as a "Slack alternative" must actually handle team messaging, not just have a chat widget

5. Minimum Community Traction

  • Not a hard star count threshold, but the project should show real-world usage
  • Evidence includes: GitHub stars, active Discord/forum, third-party blog posts, or package download counts
  • Solo hobby projects with no users are excluded

Docker Deployment Configs

The 56+ tools with Docker Compose configurations have additional requirements:

  • Config must produce a working deployment (we test every config)
  • Environment variables for secrets must use placeholder values, not hardcoded defaults
  • The "Generate Secure Config" feature on the site replaces placeholders with cryptographically random values
  • Configs target single-server deployment (not Kubernetes)

What We Don't Vet

  • We don't audit source code for security vulnerabilities
  • We don't benchmark performance claims
  • We don't verify every feature listed on a tool's own marketing page
  • We don't guarantee long-term project survival

Reporting Issues

If a listed tool no longer meets these criteria (abandoned, license changed, etc.), open an issue: https://github.com/altstackHQ/altstack-data/issues

Changes to This Document

This criteria may evolve. Changes will be tracked through git history on this file.