THE LINUX FOUNDATION PROJECTS

What is the CDF?

The Continuous Delivery Foundation (CDF) is the vendor-neutral home for open source projects that power the modern software factory. We bring together builders, end-users, and vendors to govern and advance the software delivery control plane, where automation, security, and intelligence converge to build and operate both traditional and AI-enabled applications with speed and resilience.

Mission

Our mission is to grow and sustain the pivotal open source projects that form the backbone of the software delivery factory, empowering teams to accelerate innovation, strengthen security and compliance, and deliver reliable software at a global scale.

Three Pillars of Modern Software Factories

The CDF advances the modern software factory through three foundational pillars: Security, Self-Service, and AI

1. Self-service Control Plane enables platform engineering teams to provide clear golden paths, reusable workflows, and internal developer platforms, empowering teams to move independently and safely.

2. Security is embedded as code across the lifecycle: policy, compliance, and vulnerability management are continuously enforced. 

3. AI drives intelligent workflows, automating analysis, prioritization, remediation, and optimization, while enabling first-class support for building, delivering, and operating AI-native applications.

Together, these pillars form an adaptive, intelligent foundation for the next generation of software delivery.

Values and Principles

The Continuous Delivery Foundation is guided by the following principles:

Platform Engineering for Self-Service Developer Productivity

We believe platform engineering enables organizations to build internal developer platforms, golden paths, and reusable automation that reduce cognitive load while increasing velocity and reliability.

Security as Code, Not an Afterthought

We believe DevSecOps embeds security, compliance, and policy directly into automated workflows, delivering protection throughout the software lifecycle.

AI as an Accelerator of Software Delivery

We believe artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming software engineering, enhancing pipeline intelligence, automating remediation, improving observability, and enabling adaptive, self-optimizing delivery systems. We advocate for transparent, secure, and responsible AI integration into the software lifecycle.

Continuous Delivery as a Core Capability

We believe continuous delivery, the ability to safely and reliably deliver changes to the user at all times, is foundational to modern software organizations, enabling rapid innovation, operational resilience, and measurable quality at scale.

Vendor-Neutral, Community-Driven Collaboration & Interoperability

We foster a healthy, vendor-neutral ecosystem where collaboration, open standards, and interoperability enable sustainable innovation. We encourage practitioners to openly share experiences, patterns, and research to continuously advance best practices.