Discover / Automation
Prefect
by PrefectHQPython
Modern workflow orchestration for data and ML pipelines.
Maturity: stable because 8y old, 3.8.1 released 4d ago. Derived from release and commit history, not a rating.
- Stars
- 24k
- Forks
- 2.4k
- Downloads / mo
- 12.0M
- Last commit
- 2026-08-03
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Open issues
- 823
Market and trust evidence
Edition not yet matchedNo exact skills.sh identity match is available for this repository. Repository adoption and freshness remain visible above; install momentum is not inferred.
Trust analysis is a screening signal, not a security warranty. Read the ranking and trust methodology.
In practice
Written by AI from this repository’s README · high confidenceA working Python script has no scheduling, retry, caching or observability once it has to run in production.
Use it when
When you want to turn ordinary Python functions into orchestrated, observable workflows with schedules and retries.
Not the right pick when
Wrong pick below Python 3.10, and monitoring needs either a self hosted Prefect server or the managed Prefect Cloud.
Capabilities
- flow and task decorators to orchestrate and observe Python code
- scheduling, caching, retries and event based automations
- self hosted Prefect server with a UI at localhost:4200
- deployments with cron schedules using .serve()
- run workflows manually from the UI or CLI
Requirements
- Python 3.10+
Cost: Open source with a paid cloud option
Install
Derived from the published package name in the repository, not from a model.
Video walkthroughs
How to Deploy & Schedule Data Workflows w/ Prefect
Getting Started with Prefect | Task Orchestration & Data Workflows
Third-party YouTube uploads matched to this tool by title, channel and repository name on 2026-08-03. Not made, reviewed or endorsed by SkillPilot. View counts and publish months are as of the match date and the month is approximate. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
What the repository ships
Detected from the actual files in the repository root.
Latest release 3.8.1
Published 2026-07-30
Enhancements ➕➕
- Show tooltips for flow run state tabs in the V2 UI by @uinstinct in #22617
Bug Fixes 🐞
- Make
ConcurrencyContextexit cleanup best-effort by @devin-ai-integration[bot] in #22619 - Keep worker startup alive when the Prefect API is unreachable by @devin-ai-integration[bot] in #22640
- Make
PrefectFutureList.resulttimeout message reachable by @devin-ai-integration[bot] in #22634 - Render ANSI color escape codes in flow run logs in the V2 UI by @devin-ai-integration[bot] in #22653
- Confirm the exact suspension transition reported by a suspension event by @devin-ai-integration[bot] in #22649
- Allow any float precision on schema number inputs in the V2 UI by @AJ-ing in #22643
- Reject unknown fields for
FlowRunFilterand its nested criteria by @devin-ai-integration[bot] in #22659 - Relinquish evicted flow runs to infrastructure retry by @chuqCTC in #22622
- Fix saved block parameters in deployments by @desertaxle in #22568
- Preserve subprocesses after output stream errors by @desertaxle in #22573
- Clear stale expiration entries when a repossessed lease is missing by @devin-ai-integration[bot] in #22657
Development & Tidiness 🧹
- Fix codespell error on unit test
TEST_BLOCK_CODE_BAD_SYNTAXon Windows by @g-ringeisen in #22642 - Drop unused global
mintlify-scrapeinstall from static analysis by @devin-ai-integration[bot] in #22677
Documentation 📓
- Add missing line break after imports in documentation examples by @uinstinct in #22627
- Document
SubmittingandInfrastructurePendingstates by @devin-ai-integration[bot] in #22660 - Fix flows documentation link to the getting started page by @uinstinct in #22648
Full Changelog: https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/compare/3.8.0...3.8.1
Tags
README
<p align="center"><img src="https://github.com/PrefectHQ/prefect/assets/3407835/c654cbc6-63e8-4ada-a92a-efd2f8f24b85" width=1000></p>
<p align="center">
<a href="https://pypi.org/project/prefect/" alt="PyPI version">
<img alt="PyPI" src="https://img.shields.io/pypi/v/prefect?color=0052FF&labelColor=090422" />
</a>
<a href="https://pypi.org/project/prefect/" alt="PyPI downloads/month">
<img alt="Downloads" src="https://img.shields.io/pypi/dm/prefect?color=0052FF&labelColor=090422" />
</a>
<a href="https://github.com/prefecthq/prefect/" alt="Stars">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/github/stars/prefecthq/prefect?color=0052FF&labelColor=090422" />
</a>
<a href="https://github.com/prefecthq/prefect/pulse" alt="Activity">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/github/commit-activity/m/prefecthq/prefect?color=0052FF&labelColor=090422" />
</a>
<br>
<a href="https://prefect.io/slack" alt="Slack">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/slack-join_community-red.svg?color=0052FF&labelColor=090422&logo=slack" />
</a>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/PrefectIO/" alt="YouTube">
<img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/youtube-watch_videos-red.svg?color=0052FF&labelColor=090422&logo=youtube" />
</a>
</p>
<p align="center">
<a href="https://docs.prefect.io/v3/get-started/index?utm_source=oss&utm_medium=oss&utm_campaign=oss_gh_repo&utm_term=none&utm_content=none">
Installation
</a>
·
<a href="https://docs.prefect.io/v3/get-started/quickstart?utm_source=oss&utm_medium=oss&utm_campaign=oss_gh_repo&utm_term=none&utm_content=none">
Quickstart
</a>
·
<a href="https://docs.prefect.io/v3/how-to-guides/workflows/write-and-run?utm_source=oss&utm_medium=oss&utm_campaign=oss_gh_repo&utm_term=none&utm_content=none">
Build workflows
</a>
·
<a href="https://docs.prefect.io/v3/concepts/deployments?utm_source=oss&utm_medium=oss&utm_campaign=oss_gh_repo&utm_term=none&utm_content=none">
Deploy workflows
</a>
·
<a href="https://app.prefect.cloud/?utm_source=oss&utm_medium=oss&utm_campaign=oss_gh_repo&utm_term=none&utm_content=none">
Prefect Cloud
</a>
</p>
Prefect
Prefect is a workflow orchestration framework for building data pipelines in Python.
It's the simplest way to elevate a script into a production workflow.
With Prefect, you can build resilient, dynamic data pipelines that react to the world around them and recover from unexpected changes.
With just a few lines of code, data teams can confidently automate any data process with features such as scheduling, caching, retries, and event-based automations.
Workflow activity is tracked and can be monitored with a self-hosted Prefect server instance or managed Prefect Cloud dashboard.
[!TIP]
Prefect flows can handle retries, dependencies, and even complex branching logic
Check our docs or see the example below to learn more!
Getting started
Prefect requires Python 3.10+. To install the latest version of Prefect, run one of the following commands:
pip install -U prefect
uv add prefect
Then create and run a Python file that uses Prefect flow and task decorators to orchestrate and observe your workflow - in this case, a simple script that fetches the number of GitHub stars from a repository:
from prefect import flow, task
import httpx
@task(log_prints=True)
def get_stars(repo: str):
url = f"https://api.github.com/repos/{repo}"
count = httpx.get(url).json()["stargazers_count"]
print(f"{repo} has {count} stars!")
@flow(name="GitHub Stars")
def github_stars(repos: list[str]):
for repo in repos:
get_stars(repo)
# run the flow!
if __name__ == "__main__":
github_stars(["PrefectHQ/prefect"])
Fire up a Prefect server and open the UI at http://localhost:4200 to see what happened:
prefect server start
To run your workflow on a schedule, turn it into a deployment and schedule it to run every minute by changing the last line of your script to the following:
if __name__ == "__main__":
github_stars.serve(
name="first-deployment",
cron="* * * * *",
parameters={"repos": ["PrefectHQ/prefect"]}
)
You now have a process running locally that is looking for scheduled deployments!
Additionally you can run your workflow manually from the UI or CLI. You can even run deployments in response to events.
[!TIP]
Where to go next - check out our documentation to learn more about:
- Deploying flows to production environments
- Adding error handling and retries
Prefect Cloud
Prefect Cloud provides workflow orchestration for the modern data enterprise. By automating over 200 million data tasks monthly, Prefect empowers diverse organizations — from Fortune 50 leaders such as Progressive Insurance to innovative disruptors such as Cash App — to increase engineering productivity, reduce pipeline errors, and cut data workflow compute costs.
Read more about Prefect Cloud here or sign up to try it for yourself.
prefect-client
If your use case is geared towards communicating with Prefect Cloud or a remote Prefect server, check out our
prefect-client. It is a lighter-weight option for accessing client-side functionality in the Prefect SDK and is ideal for use in ephemeral execution environments.
Connect & Contribute
Join a thriving community of over 25,000 practitioners who solve data challenges with Prefect. Prefect's community is built on collaboration, technical innovation, and continuous improvement.
Community Resources
🌐 Explore the Documentation - Comprehensive guides and API references
💬 Join the Slack Community - Connect with thousands of practitioners
🤝 Contribute to Prefect - Help shape the future of the project
🔌 Support or create a new Prefect integration - Extend Prefect's capabilities
📋 Tail the Dev Log - Prefect's open source development blog
Stay Informed
📥 Subscribe to our Newsletter - Get the latest Prefect news and updates
📣 X and Bluesky - Latest updates and announcements
📺 YouTube - Video tutorials and webinars
📱 LinkedIn - Professional networking and company news
Your contributions, questions, and ideas make Prefect better every day. Whether you're reporting bugs, suggesting features, or improving documentation, your input is invaluable to the Prefect community.