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Rank #3 of 5 in Data Pipelines & ELT

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Dagster

Open Source

Dagster Labs

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Install

uvxuvx create-dagster@latest project my-project
pippip install dagster dagster-webserver

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Showcase

Dagster homepage screenshot
homepage · captured Sep 2026 · view live ↗
Dagster docs screenshot
docs · captured Sep 2026 · view live ↗

Try itExperimental

See what an agent can do with Dagster before you ever sign up. Pick a story: recorded sessions replay real probe-harness transcripts; sandboxed self-drive sessions are designed and gated (docs/TRY-IT.md).

$uvx dagster --versionrecorded session — replayed, not live
recorded 2026-09-08 · exit 0 · captured verbatim by our probe harness, secrets redacted

Verified integrations

Connections to other tracked products — hover a chip for the verbatim evidence quote behind it.

By theme — the product's score on each story themeBy theme

Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticnessevidence →

How well agents can access and operate the product

34.2/100

Ai pipelines — stories about ai pipelines in this arenaAi pipelinesevidence →

Stories about ai pipelines in this arena

34.7/100

Automation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedAutomation depthevidence →

How much of the product can run unattended

60.5/100

Code first portability — stories about code first portability in this arenaCode first portabilityevidence →

Stories about code first portability in this arena

52.0/100

Connectors catalog — stories about connectors catalog in this arenaConnectors catalogevidence →

Stories about connectors catalog in this arena

30.0/100

Observability reliability — stories about observability reliability in this arenaObservability reliabilityevidence →

Stories about observability reliability in this arena

18.0/100

Openness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesOpennessevidence →

Open source, data portability, and self-hosting stories

40.2/100

Orchestration scheduling — stories about orchestration scheduling in this arenaOrchestration schedulingevidence →

Stories about orchestration scheduling in this arena

65.3/100

Pricing cost — stories about pricing cost in this arenaPricing costevidence →

Stories about pricing cost in this arena

0.0/100

Privacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrivacy postureevidence →

Data-handling and privacy stories

9.0/100

Reverse etl activation — stories about reverse etl activation in this arenaReverse etl activationevidence →

Stories about reverse etl activation in this arena

0.0/100

Schema evolution — stories about schema evolution in this arenaSchema evolutionevidence →

Stories about schema evolution in this arena

30.0/100

Sync replication — stories about sync replication in this arenaSync replicationevidence →

Stories about sync replication in this arena

23.2/100

Transformations dbt — stories about transformations dbt in this arenaTransformations dbtevidence →

Stories about transformations dbt in this arena

80.0/100

Story verdicts — every judged story with its evidenceStory verdicts

?

Sorted by importance (agentic first) (high → low) · 53/53 stories · click a row’s chevron for the rationale and evidence

Connect an agent via an official MCP server G

Agent access

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness3full7/10T

Drive the product through a documented public API G

Agent access

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness3partial6/10T

Delegate tasks to a built-in AI assistant inside the product G

Agentic features

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness3none0/10

Plug MCP servers into this product so it can use their tools G

Agent access

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness3none0/10

Point an agent at llms.txt or agent-oriented docs G

Agent access

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness2full9/10T

Use an official CLI G

Agent access

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness2full9/10T

Build against official SDKs G

Agent access

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness2full8/10T

Run the product headlessly / in CI for automation G

Agent access

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness2full8/10T

Set up automations that run autonomously in the background G

Agentic features

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness2full8/10T

Operate the product with natural-language commands G

Agentic features

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness2partial6/10T

Download a machine-readable API spec (OpenAPI or equivalent) G

Api quality

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness2none0/10

Explore an interactive API reference with runnable examples G

Api quality

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness2none0/10

Get AI-generated insights and suggestions from my data inside the product G

Agentic features

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness2none0/10

Rely on versioned APIs with a documented deprecation policy G

Api quality

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness2none0/10

Subscribe to events via webhooks G

Agent access

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness2none0/10

Issue scoped/least-privilege API credentials for an agent G

Agent access

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness2noneuntestednone yet

Test against a sandbox environment without touching production data G

Api quality

ai-native userAgenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productAgenticness1partial6/10T

Self-host the core product G

ai-native userOpenness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesOpenness3full9/10T

A coding agent can scaffold, configure, and run a complete pipeline headlessly through the CLI or API C

Ai build

ai-native userAi pipelines — stories about ai pipelines in this arenaAi pipelines3full8/10T

Define rules that trigger actions automatically on events G

ai-native userAutomation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedAutomation depth3full8/10T

I pick from a broad catalog of maintained connectors for the SaaS APIs, databases, and files my company actually uses C

Catalog

data engineerConnectors catalog — stories about connectors catalog in this arenaConnectors catalog3partial6/10X

Upstream schema changes are detected and propagated by a policy I choose, instead of silently breaking loads C

Evolution

data engineerSchema evolution — stories about schema evolution in this arenaSchema evolution3partial5/10C

Export all of my data in open formats and leave G

ai-native userOpenness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesOpenness3partial4/10C

I see run status, logs, and row counts per sync, and failures alert me in Slack, email, or a webhook C

Monitoring

data engineerObservability reliability — stories about observability reliability in this arenaObservability reliability3partial4/10C

AI drafts a working connector from API documentation — auth, pagination, streams — that I review and ship C

Ai build

ai-native userAi pipelines — stories about ai pipelines in this arenaAi pipelines3none0/10

I replicate databases with log-based CDC (binlog/WAL) so I capture updates and deletes without hammering the source C

Cdc

data engineerSync replication — stories about sync replication in this arenaSync replication3none0/10

Syncs move only new and changed records — cursor and state management handled for me, not full reloads C

Incremental

data engineerSync replication — stories about sync replication in this arenaSync replication3none0/10

Prevent my data from being used to train AI models G

ai-native userPrivacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrivacy posture3n/auntestednone yet

I define dependencies between pipeline steps and datasets, and the platform orchestrates runs in the right order C

Orchestration

data engineerOrchestration scheduling — stories about orchestration scheduling in this arenaOrchestration scheduling2full9/10T

Dbt transformations run against freshly loaded data as part of the pipeline, not on a blind timer C

Dbt

analytics engineerTransformations dbt — stories about transformations dbt in this arenaTransformations dbt2full8/10X

I control sync frequency per pipeline — from sub-hour schedules to cron expressions and manual triggers C

Scheduling

data engineerSync replication — stories about sync replication in this arenaSync replication2full8/10T

My pipelines are plain code and config in my own repository — versioned, reviewed, and portable like any software C

Code first

data engineerCode first portability — stories about code first portability in this arenaCode first portability2full8/10T

Schedule recurring jobs or workflows G

ai-native userAutomation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedAutomation depth2full8/10T

I run and test a pipeline locally against a lightweight destination before it touches production C

Dev loop

data engineerOrchestration scheduling — stories about orchestration scheduling in this arenaOrchestration scheduling2full7/10T

An agent can check sync status, diagnose a failed run, and re-trigger it through an API or MCP server C

Ai operate

ai-native userAi pipelines — stories about ai pipelines in this arenaAi pipelines2partial6/10T

Backfill history or resync a single table without rebuilding the whole pipeline C

Backfill

data engineerSync replication — stories about sync replication in this arenaSync replication2partial6/10C

I build a custom connector for a long-tail API with a supported framework or low-code builder, not a fork C

Custom connectors

data engineerConnectors catalog — stories about connectors catalog in this arenaConnectors catalog2partial6/10C

I see end-to-end lineage of my datasets — which sources, steps, and transformations produced each table C

Lineage

data engineerOrchestration scheduling — stories about orchestration scheduling in this arenaOrchestration scheduling2partial6/10C

Do everything through the API that I can do in the UI G

ai-native userOpenness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesOpenness2partial5/10T

Perform bulk operations across many items at once G

ai-native userAutomation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedAutomation depth2partial5/10T

I load to the major warehouses and lakes — Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, Postgres, object storage — without changing pipelines C

Destinations

data engineerCode first portability — stories about code first portability in this arenaCode first portability2partial4/10C

Control data retention and deletion G

ai-native userPrivacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrivacy posture2partial3/10C

The pricing model is published and predictable — I can estimate what a new source costs before connecting it G

Pricing

data platform leadPricing cost — stories about pricing cost in this arenaPricing cost2none0/10

Choose where my data is stored (region/residency) G

ai-native userPrivacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrivacy posture2n/auntestednone yet

I sync modeled warehouse data back into SaaS tools (CRM, ads, support) to activate it where teams work C

Reverse etl

analytics engineerReverse etl activation — stories about reverse etl activation in this arenaReverse etl activation2noneuntestednone yet

Opt out of telemetry and usage tracking G

ai-native userPrivacy posture — data-handling and privacy storiesPrivacy posture2noneuntestednone yet

Read the product's source under an open license G

ai-native userOpenness — open source, data portability, and self-hosting storiesOpenness2noneuntestednone yet

Transient failures retry automatically and interrupted syncs resume from checkpoints instead of restarting C

Recovery

data engineerObservability reliability — stories about observability reliability in this arenaObservability reliability2noneuntestednone yet

Tell how fresh each destination table is and get warned when a pipeline misses its expected cadence C

Freshness

analytics engineerObservability reliability — stories about observability reliability in this arenaObservability reliability1partial6/10C

Loaded data lands as typed, deduplicated destination tables ready to query, not raw JSON blobs C

Normalization

analytics engineerSchema evolution — stories about schema evolution in this arenaSchema evolution1partial5/10C

Version, review, and roll back my automations G

ai-native userAutomation depth — how much of the product can run unattendedAutomation depth1partial4/10X

The catalog tells me each connector's maturity, support level, and maintainer before I depend on it C

Catalog

data engineerConnectors catalog — stories about connectors catalog in this arenaConnectors catalog1none0/10

Pipelines load into vector stores and LLM-ready formats so my agents can retrieve what was synced C

Ai destinations

ai-native userAi pipelines — stories about ai pipelines in this arenaAi pipelines1noneuntestednone yet

Opportunities — the stories that would move this product's scores, from its own judged verdictsOpportunitiestop 8 of 36 stories with headroom

What would move Dagster’s scores — derived from its own judged verdicts, biggest headroom first. Each line quotes what the judge found missing; shipping it (or evidencing it publicly) is the fix.

  1. Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productDelegate tasks to a built-in AI assistant inside the product

    nonemoves Built-in AIimpact 45

    Evidence shows Dagster ships an AI skill and an MCP server so that external coding agents (e.g., Claude, Copilot) can build/manage Dagster projects, but this is the inverse of the story — it makes Dagster controllable by agents, not a built-in assistant living inside Dagster's own UI/product that a user can delegate tasks to.

  2. Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productPlug MCP servers into this product so it can use their tools

    nonemoves agent-readyimpact 45

    Evidence only shows Dagster exposing itself as an MCP server (Dagster+ MCP server, dagster-docs-14/probe-3) so external AI agents can call Dagster's tools — the opposite direction of the story, which asks whether a user can plug external MCP servers into Dagster so Dagster can use their tools.

  3. Ai pipelines — stories about ai pipelines in this arenaAI drafts a working connector from API documentation — auth, pagination, streams — that I review and ship

    nonemoves PA Scoreimpact 30

    Dagster's evidence shows AI coding-agent skills, an MCP server, and CLI scaffolding for generic Dagster projects/components, plus integrations with connector tools (Airbyte, Fivetran, dlt), but there is no evidence of an AI feature that drafts a working connector (auth, pagination, streams) directly from API documentation for review and shipping.

  4. Sync replication — stories about sync replication in this arenaI replicate databases with log-based CDC (binlog/WAL) so I capture updates and deletes without hammering the source

    nonemoves PA Scoreimpact 30

    Dagster's evidence shows it orchestrates and triggers syncs via Airbyte/Fivetran/dlt integrations, but nothing in the pack describes Dagster itself (or these integrations, as documented) performing log-based CDC (binlog/WAL) capture of inserts/updates/deletes.

  5. Sync replication — stories about sync replication in this arenaSyncs move only new and changed records — cursor and state management handled for me, not full reloads

    nonemoves PA Scoreimpact 30

    Dagster orchestrates external sync tools (Fivetran, Airbyte, dlt) and represents their connectors as assets, but the evidence never shows Dagster itself managing cursors/incremental-state for syncs — that logic lives in the underlying EL tools, not in Dagster's own asset/partition framework.

  6. Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productGet AI-generated insights and suggestions from my data inside the product

    nonemoves Built-in AIimpact 30

    Missing: any evidence of AI-generated insights/suggestions about data content, in-product analytics copilot, or anomaly detection surfaced to users.

  7. Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productIssue scoped/least-privilege API credentials for an agent

    nonemoves agent-readyimpact 30

    Missing: any mention of API tokens, scoped credentials, RBAC for agent access, or least-privilege key issuance mechanisms.

  8. Agenticness — how well agents can access and operate the productSubscribe to events via webhooks

    nonemoves agent-readyimpact 30

    Dagster documents sensors (event-driven triggers) and Dagster+ alerts, but no evidence describes an actual webhook subscription mechanism for external systems to receive event notifications from Dagster.

Showing the top 8 of 36 — every none/partial verdict in the story verdicts table is headroom.

Think a verdict is wrong? Every verdicts-table row has a Flag link — see the methodology.

Coverage map — which docs area, API section, or community source covers which judged storiesCoverage map11 surfaces · 33 covered stories

Where the cited evidence behind each covered verdict came from — the same citations the verdicts table shows, no extra judging.

Guides docs23 stories

Probe proofs — replayable recordings from the probe harnessProbe proofs

Replayable recordings from our probe harness — see the Prove-It protocol to submit one.

$uvx dagster --versionreproduced
$ uvx dagster --version
dagster, version 1.13.21
proves: Use an official CLIrecorded 2026-09-08
$mktemp -d && uvx create-dagster@latest project pa-probe --uv-sync && cd pa-probe && uv run dagster dev -p 13334 & curl http://127.0.0.1:13334/server_info # scaffold + real webserver boot, keylessreproduced
$ mktemp -d && uvx create-dagster@latest project pa-probe --uv-sync && cd pa-probe && uv run dagster dev -p 13334 & curl http://127.0.0.1:13334/server_info  # scaffold + real webserver boot, [redacted]less

uv.lock and virtual environment created.
Run `source pa-probe/.venv/bin/activate` to activate your project's virtual environment.
README.md	pyproject.toml	src		tests		uv.lock
2026-09-08 13:41:11 -0700 - dagster-webserver - INFO - Serving dagster-webserver on http://127.0.0.1:13334 in process 710
{"dagster_webserver_version":"1.13.21","dagster_version":"1.13.21","dagster_graphql_version":"1.13.21"}

Claims vs evidence — vendor claims reconciled against independent verdictsClaims vs evidence

12 of 16 testable claims verified · 1 contradictedintegrity 63/100

19 distinct capability claims found in Dagster’s own claimed-docs/GitHub materials, reconciled against our judge’s independent verdicts.

12

Verified

3

Unverified

1

Contradicted

18

Undersold

Verified (16)
Unverified (3)
Contradicted (1)
Undersold (18)
Claims outside our story set (1)

Real capability claims found in Dagster’s own materials, but no story in this arena’s taxonomy covers them yet — that’s feedback on the taxonomy, not a mark against the product.

  • Airbyte integration lets you trigger and orchestrate Airbyte syncs from Dagster

    source ↗
Suggest a story for these →

Business model

open-sourcefree-tierusage-basedenterprise-custom

Apache-2.0 open-source core is free to self-host; Dagster+ has a free Solo tier, a Starter tier with usage-based credits, and custom Pro pricing (Serverless or Hybrid).

pricing ↗

Score trend

How this product’s scores have moved as evidence and verdicts are re-derived — a point per change, not per day.

PA Scoretracked since Sep 8 '26 — no movement recorded yet
Agent-readytracked since Sep 8 '26 — no movement recorded yet

Try Experimental

Run it in the microterminal →

Recorded agent sessions — and a live MCP handshake where the vendor ships one.

Flag

⚑ Flag a verdict

Think a verdict is wrong? Opens a prefilled GitHub issue — or use the ⚑ next to any verdict above.

Badge

Embed this product's score badge →

Hotlinked SVG — always shows the live current score.

For agents

Data

Agent surface uptime llms.txt up (tracking since Sep 10 '26)