# Harness Open Source — End-to-End Developer Platform

> Harness Open Source (formerly Gitness) is a developer platform providing source control, CI/CD pipelines, hosted dev environments, and artifact registries. It offers a lightweight, self-hosted alternative to GitHub and GitLab with built-in pipeline execution.

## Install

Save in your project root:

# Harness Open Source — End-to-End Developer Platform

## Quick Use
```bash
# Run with Docker
docker run -d \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -v harness:/data \
  --name harness \
  --restart always \
  harness/harness

# Access at http://localhost:3000
# Create your account and first project
```

## Introduction
Harness Open Source is a complete developer platform in a single binary. It combines Git hosting (like GitHub), CI/CD pipelines, hosted development environments, and an artifact registry — all self-hosted and lightweight. Previously known as Gitness, it was rebranded as Harness Open Source to reflect its expanded scope.

With over 35,000 GitHub stars, Harness Open Source provides a compelling alternative for teams that want the GitHub/GitLab experience on their own infrastructure without the complexity of GitLab self-managed.

## What Harness Does
Harness Open Source provides four core capabilities: Git repository hosting with pull requests and code review, a pipeline engine for CI/CD with Docker-based execution, cloud development environments (like Gitpod), and a container/artifact registry. All integrated in a single, lightweight application.

## Architecture Overview
```
[Harness Open Source (single binary)]
        |
+-------+-------+-------+-------+
|       |       |       |       |
[Source  [Pipelines] [Dev Envs] [Artifact
Control]  CI/CD     Cloud IDE   Registry]
Git repos Docker    Containers  OCI images
PRs, review execution dev env    Helm charts
Webhooks  YAML def  templates
        |
   [Storage]
   SQLite (default) or
   PostgreSQL
        |
   [Single Binary]
   ~50MB, runs anywhere
   Docker, K8s, bare metal
```

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
```yaml
# .harness/pipeline.yaml — CI pipeline
kind: pipeline
spec:
  stages:
    - type: ci
      spec:
        steps:
          - name: test
            type: run
            spec:
              container: node:20
              script: |
                npm ci
                npm test

          - name: build
            type: run
            spec:
              container: node:20
              script: |
                npm run build

          - name: docker
            type: plugin
            spec:
              name: docker
              inputs:
                repo: registry.example.com/my-app
                tags: latest
```

## Key Features
- **Git Hosting** — repositories with PRs, code review, and webhooks
- **CI/CD Pipelines** — Docker-based pipeline execution with YAML config
- **Dev Environments** — cloud-based development workspaces
- **Artifact Registry** — OCI container and Helm chart registry
- **Single Binary** — entire platform in one ~50MB executable
- **Lightweight** — minimal resource requirements compared to GitLab
- **Pipeline Plugins** — extensible step system with Docker images
- **API First** — comprehensive REST API for automation

## Comparison with Similar Tools
| Feature | Harness OSS | Gitea | GitLab CE | GitHub | Forgejo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Git Hosting | Yes | Yes | Yes | Cloud | Yes |
| CI/CD | Built-in | Via Woodpecker | Built-in | Actions | Via Woodpecker |
| Dev Environments | Yes | No | No | Codespaces | No |
| Artifact Registry | Yes | Packages | Built-in | Packages | Packages |
| Resource Usage | Very Low | Very Low | High | N/A | Very Low |
| Single Binary | Yes | Yes | No | N/A | Yes |
| GitHub Stars | 35K | 47K | N/A | N/A | 11K |

## FAQ
**Q: Harness Open Source vs Gitea — which should I choose?**
A: Harness for an all-in-one platform with built-in CI/CD and dev environments. Gitea for a lightweight, mature Git server with a large plugin ecosystem.

**Q: Is this the same as Harness enterprise?**
A: No. Harness Open Source is the free, self-hosted platform (formerly Gitness). Harness enterprise is a separate commercial CI/CD and DevOps platform with additional features.

**Q: Can it replace GitHub for my team?**
A: For small-to-medium teams, yes. It provides Git hosting, PRs, CI/CD, and dev environments. For large organizations needing advanced features (GHAS, Projects, Copilot), GitHub may still be needed.

**Q: How does the pipeline engine compare to GitHub Actions?**
A: Harness pipelines use YAML similar to GitHub Actions but with a different syntax. They run steps in Docker containers and support plugins. The ecosystem is smaller than GitHub Actions.

## Sources
- GitHub: https://github.com/harness/harness
- Documentation: https://docs.harness.io/category/open-source
- Website: https://www.harness.io
- License: Apache-2.0

---
Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/eae86d36-371c-11f1-9bc6-00163e2b0d79
Author: AI Open Source