Topics / #sysadmin
Sysadmin projects on GitHub
Resources and tools for system administration and server management.
As of , the most-starred Sysadmin projects on GitHub are the-book-of-secret-knowledge (250.7K stars), the-art-of-command-line (162.5K stars) and frp (110K stars). GitHub.Locker tracks 205 Sysadmin repositories with 4.3M stars combined. The fastest-growing on October 16 was the-book-of-secret-knowledge, with +311 stars in a day.
Hot right now
Most stars gained in a day · Oct 16
+311the-book-of-secret-knowledge
trimstray/the-book-of-secret-knowledge · ★ 250.7KA massive curated collection of lists, manuals, cheatsheets, blogs, hacks, one-liners and CLI/GUI/web tools that the author gathers from everyday sysadmin, DevOps and security work.
+74winutil
ChrisTitusTech/winutil · ★ 64.4KChris Titus Tech's Windows Utility (WinUtil) is a curated compilation of Windows system tasks: it streamlines installs, debloats with tweaks, troubleshoots, and configures Windows updates.
+74winutil-cn
yasewang1337-svg/winutil-cn · ★ 975A Chinese-localized Windows 11 utility for managing software (install/upgrade/uninstall via WinGet or Chocolatey) and maintaining the system (tweaks, Windows Update control, Windows 10/11 ISO creation). It's a fork of Chris Titus Tech's Windows Utility, translated and maintained by Holha1337.
+66tiny11builder
ntdevlabs/tiny11builder · ★ 20.6Ktiny11builder is a PowerShell script that automates building a trimmed-down Windows 11 ISO by stripping out bloatware like Edge, OneDrive, Xbox apps, Clipchamp, and more.
The all-time top
Top 100 of 205 · by stars
- 250.7K
#1 · trimstray/the-book-of-secret-knowledgethe-book-of-secret-knowledge
A massive curated collection of lists, manuals, cheatsheets, blogs, hacks, one-liners and CLI/GUI/web tools that the author gathers from everyday sysadmin, DevOps and security work.
- 162.5K
#2 · jlevy/the-art-of-command-linethe-art-of-command-line
A single-page guide collecting essential command-line tips, tricks, and notes for using Bash on Linux and other Unix-like systems, from basics through advanced scripting and debugging.
- 110K
#3 · fatedier/frpfrp
frp is a fast reverse proxy that lets you expose a local server sitting behind a NAT or firewall to the internet, forwarding TCP, UDP, HTTP and HTTPS traffic, with an optional P2P mode for direct client-to-client transfers.
- 4
nvm
95.6Knvm-sh/nvm · Shellnvm (Node Version Manager) is a POSIX-compliant bash script that lets you install, switch between, and manage multiple versions of Node.js on the same machine.
- 5

netdata
81Knetdata/netdata · GoNetdata is an open-source, real-time infrastructure monitoring platform that collects per-second metrics, visualizes them, and detects anomalies with machine learning.
- 6

Ventoy
80.1Kventoy/Ventoy · CVentoy is an open source tool that creates a bootable USB drive which can boot directly from ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files without extracting or reformatting them.
- 7
ansible
71Kansible/ansible · PythonAnsible is a radically simple IT automation system for configuration management, application deployment, cloud provisioning, ad-hoc tasks, network automation, and multi-node orchestration.
- 8
prometheus
66.6Kprometheus/prometheus · GoPrometheus is a systems and service monitoring tool: it scrapes metrics from configured targets at set intervals, evaluates rule expressions over that data, displays results, and fires alerts when conditions are met.
- 9

winutil
64.4KChrisTitusTech/winutil · PowerShellChris Titus Tech's Windows Utility (WinUtil) is a curated compilation of Windows system tasks: it streamlines installs, debloats with tweaks, troubleshoots, and configures Windows updates.
- 10
PowerShell
55.8KPowerShell/PowerShell · C#PowerShell is a cross-platform automation and configuration tool/framework that includes a command-line shell, a scripting language, and a framework for processing cmdlets, optimized for structured data like JSON, CSV, XML and REST APIs.
- 11

lazydocker
53.2Kjesseduffield/lazydocker · GoLazydocker is a simple terminal UI for both docker and docker-compose, written in Go with the gocui library - 'the lazier way to manage everything docker', as its tagline goes.
- 12

kubernetes-the-hard-way
50.4Kkelseyhightower/kubernetes-the-hard-wayA step-by-step tutorial that walks you through bootstrapping a Kubernetes cluster manually, without any automation scripts, so you learn how every component actually works.
- 13
brew
50KHomebrew/brew · RubyHomebrew is a free, open-source package manager that lets you install, update and manage command-line tools, libraries and apps on macOS and Linux straight from the terminal.
- 14
terraform
49.9Khashicorp/terraform · GoTerraform is a tool for building, changing, and versioning infrastructure safely and efficiently, letting you describe cloud and on-prem resources in declarative configuration files instead of clicking through consoles.
- 15

tmux
49.9Ktmux/tmux · Ctmux is a terminal multiplexer that lets you create, access, and control multiple terminals from a single screen, and detach/reattach sessions later.
- 16

hacker-scripts
49.9KNARKOZ/hacker-scripts · JavaScriptA comedic collection of sysadmin automation scripts inspired by a viral forum post about a build engineer who scripted away every annoying chore, from faking late-night SSH activity to auto-replying to panicked client emails.
- 17
gogs
47.9Kgogs/gogs · GoGogs is a self-hosted Git service that lets you run your own GitHub-like platform on your own server, written in Go.
- 18
acme.sh
47.8Kacmesh-official/acme.sh · Shellacme.sh is a pure Unix shell script client for the ACME protocol that automatically issues, renews, and installs free SSL/TLS certificates from CAs like Let's Encrypt or ZeroSSL.
- 19

cli
46.7Kcli/cli · GoGitHub CLI (gh) is GitHub's official command line tool that brings pull requests, issues, and other GitHub concepts to your terminal, right next to git and your code.
- 20
fd
44.8Ksharkdp/fd · Rustfd is a command-line program for finding entries in your filesystem - a simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to find, with sensible defaults for the majority of use cases.
- 21

pm2
43.3KUnitech/pm2 · JavaScriptPM2 is a production process manager for Node.js and Bun applications that keeps them running forever, reloads them without downtime, and includes a built-in load balancer.
- 22

rufus
38Kpbatard/rufus · CRufus is a free utility for Windows that formats and creates bootable USB flash drives, used to make installers for Windows, Linux, FreeDOS and other bootable ISOs.
- 23

awesome-docker
37.1Kveggiemonk/awesome-dockerA curated ('awesome list') index of Docker-related projects and resources: engines, image builders, registries, orchestration tools, networking/security tooling, desktop/terminal UIs and learning materials.
- 24

node
36.4Kinkonchain/node · ShellA Docker Compose setup for running an Ink node (an Ethereum L2 built on the OP Stack), including the execution client, rollup node, and monitoring stack.
- 25

awesome-sysadmin
35.4Kawesome-foss/awesome-sysadminA curated list of free and open-source sysadmin tools, covering everything from backups and configuration management to monitoring, CI/CD, virtualization, and VPNs.
- 26
web-check
35.1Klissy93/web-check · TypeScriptWeb-Check is an open-source OSINT dashboard that lets you analyse any website: it pulls IP info, SSL chain, DNS records, cookies, headers, server location, and more into one report so you can understand its tech stack and security posture.
- 27

btop
35Karistocratos/btop · C++A terminal resource monitor that shows usage and stats for processor, memory, disks, network and processes. It is the C++ version and continuation of bashtop and bpytop.
- 28

k9s
34.8Kderailed/k9s · GoK9s is a terminal UI that lets you navigate, observe and manage Kubernetes clusters in real time instead of typing raw kubectl commands.
- 29

glances
33.8Knicolargo/glances · PythonGlances is an open-source cross-platform system monitoring tool, a top/htop alternative that shows CPU, memory, disk, network, containers, sensors, and running processes in one dashboard, reachable via terminal, web UI, API, or an MCP server for AI assistants.
- 30

certbot
33.3Kcertbot/certbot · PythonCertbot is EFF's command-line tool that automatically fetches a free TLS certificate from Let's Encrypt and deploys it to your web server to enable HTTPS, and it can also work with any other certificate authority that speaks the ACME protocol.
- 31

podman
33.1Kpodman-container-tools/podman · GoPodman (the POD MANager) is a tool for managing OCI containers and images, volumes, and pods — groups of containers managed together. It is built on libpod, a container lifecycle management library included in the same repo.
- 32

WindTerm
32.5KkingToolbox/WindTerm · CWindTerm is a free professional SSH/Telnet/Serial/Shell/Sftp client and terminal built for DevOps, combining remote connections, a local shell and file transfer in one application.
- 33

minikube
32.2Kkubernetes/minikube · GoMinikube runs a local Kubernetes cluster on macOS, Linux, or Windows so developers can build and test Kubernetes applications on their own machine.
- 34

dokku
32.2Kdokku/dokku · GoDokku is a Docker-powered PaaS (Platform as a Service) - a self-hosted, minimal Heroku alternative that helps you build and manage the lifecycle of applications on your own server.
- 35

nginx
31.9Knginx/nginx · CNGINX ('engine x') is a free, open source web server, load balancer, reverse proxy, API gateway and content cache — described as the world's most popular web server.
- 36

How-To-Secure-A-Linux-Server
31.8Kimthenachoman/How-To-Secure-A-Linux-ServerThis is a long-form, evolving how-to guide (written as a GitHub README) that walks you through hardening a self-hosted Linux server, step by step, from SSH to firewalls to intrusion detection.
- 37
helm
30.3Khelm/helm · GoHelm is the package manager for Kubernetes. It manages Charts — packages of pre-configured Kubernetes resources — so installing and managing applications in a cluster works like apt, yum or homebrew on your system.
- 38

90DaysOfDevOps
29.8KMichaelCade/90DaysOfDevOps · ShellA structured learning curriculum for DevOps that grew out of a personal 90-day public learning challenge, now covering principles, processes, tooling, and real-world use cases like Kubernetes, Terraform, and Ansible.
- 39

ProxmoxVE
29.8Kcommunity-scripts/ProxmoxVE · ShellA community-maintained set of one-command install scripts for Proxmox VE: paste a single line into your Proxmox shell and it sets up a popular self-hosted service as a ready container or VM.
- 40

v2ray
29.7K233boy/v2ray · ShellA one-click install and management script for V2Ray proxy servers, letting you set up and run multiple VMess, VLESS, Trojan and Shadowsocks configurations on your own Linux server through a single command-line tool.
- 41

openwrt
28.8Kopenwrt/openwrt · COpenWrt is a Linux-based operating system built for embedded devices, mostly routers, that replaces a single static vendor firmware with a fully writable filesystem and its own package manager so you can customize the device however you want.
- 42
setup-ipsec-vpn
28.7Khwdsl2/setup-ipsec-vpn · ShellA set of shell scripts that turns a fresh Linux server into your own IPsec VPN server in minutes, with IPsec/L2TP, Cisco IPsec and IKEv2 modes. Traffic is encrypted so nobody between you and the server can eavesdrop.
- 43

nginxconfig.io
28.3Kdigitalocean/nginxconfig.io · JavaScriptA free web-based NGINX configuration generator by DigitalOcean: you pick what your server needs and it produces a tuned config for your use case.
- 44

SwitchHosts
27.3Koldj/SwitchHosts · TypeScriptSwitchHosts is a free, open-source desktop app for managing your hosts file: keep several hosts profiles and switch between them in one click from the main window or system tray.
- 45
nixpkgs
26.5KNixOS/nixpkgs · NixNixpkgs is a collection of over 140,000 software packages that can be installed using the Nix package manager, and it also implements NixOS, a purely-functional Linux distribution built on top of those packages.
- 46

beszel
26.3Khenrygd/beszel · GoBeszel is a lightweight server monitoring platform with a friendly web interface. It tracks historical metrics and Docker container stats, sends alerts, and is ready to use out of the box.
- 47

Scoop
24.7KScoopInstaller/Scoop · PowerShellScoop is a command-line installer for Windows that lets you install apps from the terminal with minimal friction, similar to Homebrew on macOS.
- 48
dockge
24.6Klouislam/dockge · TypeScriptDockge is a self-hosted, reactive web manager for Docker Compose stacks: from a browser you create, edit, start, stop, restart and delete compose.yaml stacks, update images and watch progress in real time.
- 49

watchtower
24.6Kcontainrrr/watchtower · GoWatchtower automates Docker container updates: push a new image to your registry and it pulls it, stops the old container and starts the new version in its place.
- 50

awesome-sysadmin
24.4Kkahun/awesome-sysadminA curated, categorized list of open-source sysadmin tools and resources, covering backups, monitoring, configuration management, DNS, security, networking, and dozens of other admin topics.
- 51

neofetch
23.7Kdylanaraps/neofetch · ShellNeofetch is a command-line system information tool written in bash 3.2+. It displays your operating system, software and hardware info in an aesthetic, visually pleasing way, next to your OS logo.
- 52

osquery
23.7Kosquery/osquery · C++osquery is a SQL powered operating system instrumentation, monitoring, and analytics framework: it exposes your OS as a high-performance relational database you can query with SQL.
- 53

eza
23.6Keza-community/eza · Rusteza is a modern replacement for the venerable ls command: a file lister for the terminal with colours, icons and more features and better defaults.
- 54

anubis
23.5KTecharoHQ/anubis · GoAnubis is a Web AI Firewall Utility that weighs the soul of incoming connections with challenges to protect upstream resources from AI scraper bots — built to defend the small internet from endless storms of AI-company requests.
- 55
vector
22.7Kvectordotdev/vector · RustAn open-source, high-performance observability data pipeline: it collects, transforms, and routes your logs and metrics to any vendors you choose, so you keep control of your observability data. It is maintained by Datadog's Community Open Source Engineering team.
- 56

bcc
22.7Kiovisor/bcc · CBCC (BPF Compiler Collection) is a toolkit for creating efficient kernel tracing and manipulation programs on Linux using eBPF. It also ships a large collection of ready-made tools for I/O analysis, networking, and monitoring.
- 57
witr
22.7Kpranshuparmar/witr · Gowitr answers one question: 'why is this running?' Point it at a process, port, container, or file, and it traces the exact chain of supervisors, services, and shells that started it.
- 58

macOS-Security-and-Privacy-Guide
22.6Kdrduh/macOS-Security-and-Privacy-Guide · ShellA community-maintained guide collecting techniques for improving security and privacy on macOS, written for Apple silicon Macs.
- 59

postgres
22.4Kpostgres/postgres · CPostgreSQL is an advanced open-source object-relational database management system - a full SQL database server you run to store, query and manage application data.
- 60

Bulk-Crap-Uninstaller
21.9KBCUninstaller/Bulk-Crap-Uninstaller · C#Bulk Crap Uninstaller (BCU) is a free, open-source Windows uninstaller built for removing large amounts of applications with minimal user input. It also cleans leftovers and detects orphaned apps.
- 61

containerd
21.4Kcontainerd/containerd · Gocontainerd is an industry-standard container runtime — a daemon for Linux and Windows that manages the complete container lifecycle of its host: image transfer and storage, container execution and supervision, and low-level storage and network attachments. It's a CNCF graduated project.
- 62
goaccess
21.1Kallinurl/goaccess · CGoAccess is an open source real-time web log analyzer and interactive viewer. It parses your web server access logs and shows HTTP statistics live, either in a terminal UI or as an HTML dashboard in your browser.
- 63

openvpn-install
20.6KNyr/openvpn-install · ShellA shell script that automatically sets up your own OpenVPN road warrior VPN server on Ubuntu, Debian, AlmaLinux, Rocky Linux, CentOS or Fedora.
- 64

tiny11builder
20.6Kntdevlabs/tiny11builder · C#tiny11builder is a PowerShell script that automates building a trimmed-down Windows 11 ISO by stripping out bloatware like Edge, OneDrive, Xbox apps, Clipchamp, and more.
- 65

ContextMenuManager
20.3KBluePointLilac/ContextMenuManager · C#ContextMenuManager is a Windows tool that lets you enable, disable, and customize right-click context menu items for files, folders, new-item menus, send-to, open-with, custom file formats, IE, and WinX menus.
- 66

kubectx
20Kahmetb/kubectx · GoTwo tiny command-line helpers for kubectl: kubectx switches between your Kubernetes clusters (contexts) and kubens switches the active namespace — no more typing long kubectl config commands.
- 67

trojan
19.8Ktrojan-gfw/trojan · C++Trojan is a censorship-circumvention proxy — an 'unidentifiable mechanism' built to get your traffic across China's Great Firewall (GFW).
- 68

docker-mailserver
19.6Kdocker-mailserver/docker-mailserver · ShellA production-ready, fullstack but simple mail server — SMTP, IMAP, POP3, LDAP, anti-spam and anti-virus — that runs entirely inside a single Docker container.
- 69

cadvisor
19.5Kgoogle/cadvisor · GocAdvisor (Container Advisor) is a daemon that collects, aggregates and exports resource usage and performance data for running containers, such as CPU, memory, network and historical usage statistics.
- 70

fail2ban
18.8Kfail2ban/fail2ban · PythonFail2Ban is a daemon that scans log files like /var/log/auth.log, spots hosts making too many failed login attempts, and bans them by updating system firewall rules for a configurable amount of time.
- 71

Windows10Debloater
18.8KSycnex/Windows10Debloater · PowerShellA PowerShell script/utility that debloats Windows 10 by removing pre-installed apps, stopping some telemetry, preventing Cortana from being used as your search index, and disabling unnecessary scheduled tasks.
- 72

telegraf
17.9Kinfluxdata/telegraf · GoTelegraf is an open-source agent for collecting, processing, aggregating, and writing metrics, logs, and other arbitrary data. It ships with 300+ plugins covering system monitoring, cloud services, and messaging.
- 73

ctop
17.8Kbcicen/ctop · Goctop is a terminal tool that shows a top-like, real-time overview of metrics for all your running containers, plus a detailed single-container view.
- 74

apprise
17.6Kcaronc/apprise · PythonApprise is a Python library and CLI for sending push notifications to almost every popular service — Telegram, Discord, Slack, Amazon SNS, Gotify and many more — through one common URL-based syntax.
- 75

aws-cli
17.3Kaws/aws-cli · PythonThe unified command line interface for Amazon Web Services — one aws command in your terminal to manage AWS services, published by the official aws organization.
- 76

ZeroTierOne
17.2Kzerotier/ZeroTierOne · C++ZeroTier is a smart programmable Ethernet switch: it makes your devices, VMs, containers, and apps talk to each other as if they all lived in the same data center or cloud region, wherever they physically are.
- 77

wtf
17.1Kwtfutil/wtf · GoWTF (aka 'wtfutil') is a personal information dashboard for your terminal, giving at-a-glance access to your important but rarely-needed stats and data. It is free and open-source and is used by thousands of developers and tech people.
- 78

rdpwrap
16.9Kstascorp/rdpwrap · PascalRDP Wrapper Library enables Remote Desktop Host support and concurrent RDP sessions on Windows editions that normally restrict it (like Home editions), for home use.
- 79
systemd
16.8Ksystemd/systemd · Csystemd is the system and service manager for Linux — the init system that brings the OS up at boot and supervises services while it runs.
- 80

kops
16.7Kkubernetes/kops · GokOps (Kubernetes Operations) is a tool that creates, upgrades, and manages production-grade, highly available Kubernetes clusters, and also provisions the underlying cloud infrastructure for them.
- 81
lynis
16.5KCISOfy/lynis · ShellLynis is a security auditing and hardening tool for Linux, macOS, BSD, and other Unix-like systems. It scans the host it runs on for vulnerable software, misconfigurations, and weak settings, and gives hardening tips while also assisting with compliance testing (HIPAA, ISO27001, PCI DSS).
- 82

hammerspoon
16.3KHammerspoon/hammerspoon · Objective-CHammerspoon is a bridge between macOS and a Lua scripting engine, letting you automate and control your Mac through extensions that expose system functionality to Lua scripts.
- 83

openvpn-install
16.2Kangristan/openvpn-install · ShellAn installer script that sets up and manages your own OpenVPN server on a Linux machine you control — a VPS, a dedicated server or even a home computer — and generates client config files for every device you want to connect.
- 84
packer
15.8Khashicorp/packer · GoPacker is a tool for creating identical machine images for multiple platforms from a single source configuration. It is lightweight, runs on every major OS, and builds images for multiple platforms in parallel.
- 85

salt
15.7Ksaltstack/salt · PythonSalt is an event-driven automation engine built on Python to deploy, configure and manage complex IT systems at scale — and keep every component of your infrastructure in a consistent desired state.
- 86
awx
15.6Kansible/awx · PythonAWX is a web-based user interface, REST API, and task engine built on top of Ansible — a self-hosted control center for launching and managing Ansible automation from a browser.
- 87

fabric
15.5Kfabric/fabric · PythonFabric is a high-level Python library for executing shell commands on remote servers over SSH and getting back useful Python objects, built for automation and deployment tasks.
- 88

dashboard
15.4Kkubernetes-retired/dashboard · GoKubernetes Dashboard is a general-purpose, web-based UI for Kubernetes clusters. From a browser you can manage the applications running in the cluster, troubleshoot them, and manage the cluster itself.
- 89

duf
15.3Kmuesli/duf · Goduf is a terminal utility for checking disk usage and free space — a user-friendly, better-looking alternative to df for Linux, BSD, macOS and Windows.
- 90
cockpit
15.2Kcockpit-project/cockpit · PythonCockpit is a web-based graphical interface for administering Linux servers: an interactive dashboard in your browser that talks directly to the operating system.
- 91
public-image-mirror
15.2KDaoCloud/public-image-mirror · ShellIt is a public mirror service for container registries (like gcr.io, ghcr.io, docker.io, quay.io) run by DaoCloud, meant to speed up pulling images for users in China where those registries are slow.
- 92

Proxmox
15.2Ktteck/Proxmox · ShellA collection of shell scripts for Proxmox VE that let you interactively create and configure LXC containers and virtual machines, offering both quick default setups and advanced customizable ones.
- 93

clashctl
15Knelvko/clashctl · ShellA Shell toolkit that one-click deploys and manages mihomo/clash proxy environments on Linux, handling the core, Web dashboard, and all runtime dependencies.
- 94

sampler
14.8Ksqshq/sampler · GoSampler is a terminal tool that repeatedly runs shell commands and turns their output into live visualizations like charts and gauges, with optional alerts, all configured through a single YAML file.
- 95

openvpn
14.7KOpenVPN/openvpn · COpenVPN is an open-source VPN daemon — a background service that creates a secure, encrypted tunnel over the public internet, so your device can reach a private network as if it were directly connected.
- 96

kamal
14.6Kbasecamp/kamal · RubyKamal is a deployment tool that lets you ship web apps packaged as Docker containers to any server, from bare metal machines to cloud VMs, with zero downtime.
- 97

xpipe
14.6Kxpipe-io/xpipeXPipe is a connection hub that lets you access your entire server infrastructure (SSH hosts, Docker, Kubernetes, VMs, cloud servers, WSL, and more) from one local desktop app, without installing any agent on the remote systems.
- 98

QloApps
14.4KQloapps/QloApps · PHPQloApps is a free, open-source hotel management and reservation system: a booking engine plus a Property Management System (PMS) that powers your own hotel booking website.
- 99

coredns
14.4Kcoredns/coredns · GoA fast and flexible DNS server and forwarder written in Go, built as a chain of plugins — each plugin performs one DNS function. It is a graduated Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project.
- 100

winsw
14.4Kwinsw/winsw · C#WinSW is a small wrapper executable that wraps and manages any application as a Windows service, under the permissive MIT license.
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