Cinc

Cinc is not Chef

A community-built, free-as-in-freedom distribution of Chef's open source projects.
Same code, same compatibility, no EULA — released under Apache 2.0.

Get Started Download

Cinc Server is becoming an independent fork read the announcement →

~ — cinc

$ sudo cinc-client
Cinc Client, version 19.0.0
Patents: https://www.chef.io/patents
Infra Phase starting
Resolving cookbooks for run list: ["webserver", "monitoring::nrpe"]
Synchronizing cookbooks:
  - webserver (2.4.1)
  - monitoring (3.1.0)
Installing cookbook gem dependencies:
Compiling cookbooks...
Recipe: webserver::default
  * package[nginx] action install (up to date)
  * template[/etc/nginx/nginx.conf] action create
      - update content in file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
  * service[nginx] action reload
Recipe: monitoring::nrpe
  * package[nagios-nrpe-server] action install (up to date)
Running handlers complete
Infra Phase complete, 2/47 resources updated in 8 seconds

Trusted infrastructure & community

GitLab Chef Community Apache 2.0

The Cinc family

Four projects. One toolchain.

Drop-in replacements for Chef's open source projects, built and shipped by the community.

Cinc Client

A free distribution of Chef Infra. Fully compatible cookbooks, drop-in replacement for chef-client.

Cinc Workstation

Chef Workstation, maintained as a Cinc fork. Includes cinc, cinc-shell, cinc-cli and the rest of the toolchain.

Cinc Auditor

Chef InSpec for compliance and audit workflows. Profiles are 100% compatible.

Cinc Server

The Chef Infra Server, redistributed. Now forking to outlast the upstream EOL in late 2026.

Quick start

Install in one line

Cinc uses the same omnitruck-style installers as upstream Chef:

curl -L https://omnitruck.cinc.sh/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- -v 19

. { iwr -useb https://omnitruck.cinc.sh/install.ps1 } | iex; install -version 19

See the Getting Started guide for per-project instructions, gem installs, and package-manager options.

Why Cinc?

Free as in freedom

Apache 2.0, no EULA. No trademark restrictions on the binaries we ship.
Drop-in compatible. Cinc Client and Cinc Auditor are branding-only rebuilds of upstream Chef sources. Cinc Workstation and Cinc Server are maintained as forks. Either way, your cookbooks, profiles, and pipelines work as-is.
Community owned. Built by users for users, in close coordination with Progress (formerly Chef Software) to stay compliant with the Chef trademark policy.
Sustainable hosting. CI and downloads run on OSU Open Source Lab infrastructure.

Come say hi

Talk to the community

Chat with us in the Chef Community Slack — channel #community-distros. File issues and MRs on GitLab.