OpenBolt is a community implementation of Puppet Bolt — an open source orchestration tool that automates infrastructure management over SSH and WinRM without requiring agents. Use OpenBolt to run commands, scripts, and tasks across remote targets, or to orchestrate complex workflows using plans.

OpenBolt is downstream-compatible with Puppet Bolt — existing tasks, plans, modules, and inventory files work unchanged.

How it works

OpenBolt connects directly to remote targets using SSH or WinRM, authenticates as a specified user, and executes work on the target. There is no persistent agent or daemon: each Bolt run is a one-shot operation that connects, executes, and disconnects.

Work is expressed at several levels:

• Commands — run a shell command directly on targets
• Scripts — upload and execute a script file on targets
• Tasks — self-contained, reusable units of automation with defined parameters; written in any language
• Plans — Puppet or YAML programs that sequence tasks, commands, and scripts across multiple targets with conditional logic

Getting started

• Installing OpenBolt
• Getting started with Bolt
• Writing tasks
• Writing plans