Chaos Monkey

Metrics as of 2026-09-22, from the GitHub or GitLab API of each repository. Refreshed monthly.

What Chaos Monkey is

Chaos Monkey is a Netflix tool that randomly terminates virtual machine instances and containers in production environments. It follows the Principles of Chaos Engineering. This version is integrated with the Spinnaker continuous delivery platform. Apps must be managed with Spinnaker for Chaos Monkey to terminate their instances. It is expected to work with any Spinnaker backend, including AWS, Google Compute Engine, Azure, Kubernetes and Cloud Foundry. The project reports testing on AWS, GCE and Kubernetes. The binary installs with go get. Configuration and deployment are covered in separate documentation.

Written from the project's README, read 2026-09-22.

Category: Chaos and resilience
License: Apache-2.0
Language: Go
Changelog: Releases on GitHub

Repository metrics

Repository metrics
Stars	17,145¹
Forks	1,306¹
Open issues and PRs	34¹
Contributors	32¹
Commits in the last 90 days	0¹
Last commit	2024-10-03¹
Last release	v2.1.3, 2025-01-06¹
Fetched	2026-09-22

¹ Fetched from the GitHub or GitLab API on 2026-09-22. Hover a value for its own date.

Status

inactiveNo commit in the 365 days before the fetch date. The repository is not archived.

Computed from the last commit date and the archive flag on the fetch date. See the status rules.

Alternatives

Listed chaos and resilience tools, same primary language first, then by GitHub stars. Each line gives one fact from the tool's documentation where it differs from Chaos Monkey's, with its source. See also Chaos Monkey alternatives.

Toxiproxy: Target environments: TCP connections between an application and its services, routed through the proxy. source: README
Chaos Mesh: Target environments: Kubernetes; remote clusters managed from a management cluster. source: README
LitmusChaos: Target environments: Kubernetes resources; cloud platforms such as AWS, GCP and Azure; VMware. source: Docs: Litmus Experiments
Pumba: Target environments: Docker, containerd and Podman containers on Linux. source: README
kube-monkey: Target environments: Kubernetes clusters. source: README
Hoverfly: Target environments: Linux, macOS and Windows binaries; Docker; Kubernetes via Helm. source: Docs: Download and installation
ChaosBlade: Target environments: Host environments and Kubernetes clusters. source: Docs: ChaosBlade introduction
Chaos Toolkit: Target environments: Cloud environments, datacenters and CI/CD. source: README

Comparisons

How to install

go get github.com/netflix/chaosmonkey/cmd/chaosmonkey

From README, read 2026-09-22.

Questions

Is Chaos Monkey open source?

Yes. Chaos Monkey is released under Apache-2.0, an OSI-approved license, as reported by the GitHub API on 2026-09-22.

Is Chaos Monkey maintained?

On 2026-09-22, the last commit to the default branch was on 2024-10-03, so the listed status is inactive. Rule: No commit in the 365 days before the fetch date. The repository is not archived.

How many GitHub stars does Chaos Monkey have?

17,145 stars on 2026-09-22, from the GitHub API. The number is refreshed at each monthly update.

What language is Chaos Monkey written in?

The repository's primary language, as reported by the GitHub API, is Go.

How do I install Chaos Monkey?

The README gives this command: go get github.com/netflix/chaosmonkey/cmd/chaosmonkey

Sources

GitHub REST API: repository, read 2026-09-22
GitHub REST API: commits, read 2026-09-22
GitHub REST API: latest release, read 2026-09-22
GitHub REST API: contributors, read 2026-09-22
README, read 2026-09-22