Puppet: Infrastructure Automation Ledger 2026 Scorecard

Part of the Infrastructure Automation Ledger (edition 2026-10-16). How the scores work: methodology.

Snapshot

Type: product (Puppet Core and Puppet Enterprise scored as one family)
Owner: Perforce Software (Minneapolis, US; private, backed by Francisco Partners and Clearlake Capital); acquisition of Puppet completed 2022-05-18
Engine: Puppet agent, Puppet Server and PuppetDB; source Apache 2.0, supported builds only from Perforce's private repositories since February 2025
Licence: Puppet Core free for development and test up to 25 nodes under an EULA, commercial above; Puppet Enterprise and Enterprise Advanced per node, prices not published
Latest release: Puppet Core 9.1.0 and 8.22.0 (2026-09-21); PE 2026.0 (October 2026, exact date not published)
Support lifecycle: Core 8.x end of life February 2028 and 9.x February 2029 (projected); each Core minor supersedes the previous one; PE on a Latest and Latest minus 1 model since 2026-08-06
Next milestone: none published beyond the projected end-of-life dates
Targets: Linux, Windows, macOS and Unix hosts by agent; network and edge devices agentless through Puppet Edge (2025-09-23); no vendor-maintained provisioning for vSphere, Proxmox VE, Nutanix, Hyper-V, XCP-ng or KubeVirt (puppetlabs-vsphere is marked unsupported)
Tier: Configuration management
Archetype: Gated builds, portfolio pull
Evidence grade: B. Release dates, lifecycle and licence terms were read from puppet-announce, help.puppet.com and the vendor blog, the 2022 acquisition from the Perforce press release. No prices are published. The 2017 capability steps for PDK and Puppet Tasks are from editor knowledge, not from the dossier.

Scorecard

Dimension	Score	Direction
Capability today	67.2 / 100	higher is better
Momentum since end of 2022	+11.5 points (2015 to 2022: +2.0)	higher is better
Credibility	14.0 / 25	higher is better
Commercial risk	17.5 / 25	lower is better
Technical lock-in	9.0 / 25	lower is better
Integrator fit	11.0 / 20	higher is better
AI leverage	9.0 / 20	higher is better
Ledger Index	57.0 / 100	balanced weights; see the methodology

Capability by domain, 2015 to today

Scores 0 to 5 against fixed anchors; total is weighted to 100.

Domain (weight)	2015	2019	2022	Today
Provisioning breadth (15)	1.5	1.5	1.5	2
Configuration management depth (12)	4	4	4	4.5
State, planning and safety (12)	3	3	3	3
Language and authoring (10)	3.5	4	4	4
Orchestration and self-service (10)	2.5	3	3	3.5
Scale and control plane (8)	3.5	3.5	3.5	4
Security and compliance (10)	3	3	3	4
Bare metal and day-2 operations (8)	1.5	1.5	1.5	2.5
Ecosystem and integrations (8)	4	4	4	3.5
AI assistance (7)	0	0	0	3
Total / 100	53.7	55.7	55.7	67.2

Year by year: 2015: 53.7 · 2016: 53.7 · 2017: 55.7 · 2018: 55.7 · 2019: 55.7 · 2020: 55.7 · 2021: 55.7 · 2022: 55.7 · 2023: 55.7 · 2024: 58.7 · 2025: 67.2 · 2026: 67.2

What moved the score

Year	Domain	Change	Points	Trigger
2017	Language and authoring	3.5 → 4	+1.0	Puppet Development Kit 1.0 and the VS Code extension
2017	Orchestration and self-service	2.5 → 3	+1.0	PE 2017.3: Puppet Tasks; Bolt plans
2024	Configuration management depth	4 → 4.5	+1.2	PE 2023.7: Security Compliance Management bundled
2024	Scale and control plane	3.5 → 4	+0.8	PE 2023.6 and 2023.8: 100 concurrent plans, status page, disaster recovery improvements
2024	Security and compliance	3 → 3.5	+1.0	PE 2023.7: Security Compliance Management bundled
2025	AI assistance	0 → 3	+4.2	PE 2025.4: Infra Assistant queries; PE 2025.7: code assist and Puppet MCP server (PE Advanced)
2025	Bare metal and day-2 operations	1.5 → 2.5	+1.6	PE 2025.2: advanced patching and vulnerability remediation (PE Advanced)
2025	Ecosystem and integrations	4 → 3.5	-0.8	Choria drops Perforce builds (2025-01-23); Vox Pupuli declines the Core EULA (2025-05-19) and tests modules on OpenVox
2025	Orchestration and self-service	3 → 3.5	+1.0	PE Advanced workflows; PE 2025.5 reruns plans from the console
2025	Provisioning breadth	1.5 → 2	+1.5	Puppet Edge: agentless network and edge devices over NETCONF, YANG, SSH and WinRM
2025	Security and compliance	3.5 → 4	+1.0	PE 2025.2: vulnerability remediation (PE Advanced)

Direction, 2023 to 2026

Each release item carries one theme and one driver (V vision, C customer need, M market window, U upstream, P portfolio).

Date	Item	Theme	Driver
2023-04	Puppet 8: new major release	Packaging	U
2023-10	PE 2023.4: Puppet 8 in Puppet Enterprise, certificate auto-renewal, orchestrator improvements	Orchestration	C
2024-02	PE 2023.6: up to 100 concurrent plans, operational status page	Scale	C
2024-05	PE 2023.7: Continuous Delivery and Security Compliance Management bundled into PE	Security	P
2024-08	PE 2023.8: final legacy LTS, performance and disaster recovery improvements	Scale	C
2024-10	Puppet 8.10.0 and 7.34.0: last releases in the public puppetlabs/puppet repository	Licensing	P
2024-11	Announcement: binaries move to private repositories from early 2025, free up to 25 nodes, slower public commits	Licensing	P
2025-02	Puppet Core 8.11.0: first build under the Puppet Core EULA	Packaging	P
2025-03	PE 2025.2: vulnerability remediation and advanced patching in the new PE Advanced edition	Bare metal	P
2025-06	PE 2025.4: Infra Assistant natural-language queries (PE Advanced)	AI	V
2025-08	PE 2025.5: rerun plans from the console; RHEL 10 agent	Orchestration	C
2025-09	Puppet Edge: agentless network and edge devices; Bolt 5.0 with NETCONF transport	Provisioning breadth	M
2025-12	PE 2025.7: Infra Assistant code assist and Puppet MCP server (PE Advanced)	AI	V
2026-03	PE 2025.9 and 2025.10: live patch progress, workflow edit and stop, Debian 13 agent	Bare metal	C
2026-08	PE support model changes to Latest and Latest minus 1	Licensing	P
2026-08	Puppet Core 9.0.0: Ruby 4.0, OpenSSL 3.5, JDK 21 and Jetty 12 server baseline	Packaging	U
2026-09	Puppet Core 9.1.0 and 8.22.0: Debian 12 ARMv7L agent, CVE patches	Security	C

Centre of gravity: Packaging (3), Licensing (3), Orchestration (2)
Blind spots (no items): Configuration management, State and planning, Language, Ecosystem
Driver mix: Vision 12%, Customer need 35%, Market window 6%, Upstream 12%, Portfolio 35%
Idea-to-need index: 0.22 (0 = demand-pulled, 1 = thesis-pushed)

Credibility: 14.0 / 25

Criterion	Score	Basis
Cadence	3.5	A Puppet Core minor every 6 to 10 weeks since 2025-11 and PE roughly monthly; the lifecycle page gives projected months, not dates
Roadmap transparency	2	Release notes public without login; no public roadmap; the public repository stopped at 8.10.0 on 2024-10-22
Say-do	3	Infra Assistant, Edge and Core 9 shipped; PE 2026.0 came about two months after the August projection; the Ecosystem Advisory Board of 2024-11 was not found
Velocity	3.5	Edge, Infra Assistant, vulnerability remediation and a Ruby 4 baseline within two years
Lifecycle stability	2	Each Core minor supersedes the previous; the support model changed to Latest and Latest minus 1 on 2026-08-06; open source Puppet 7 ended 2025-04-30 with no public 8.x builds after 2024-10

Commercial risk: 17.5 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Price and licence volatility	4	Public packages replaced by EULA-gated Puppet Core in February 2025 with a 25-node free cap; support model changed in 2026-08
Purchase constraints	3	Free tier is development and test only up to 25 nodes; commercial licences by quote, no list prices
Channel and access	4	Forge account, MFA and API key needed to download even the free tier; patches only in Core and PE builds; partner terms not found
Owner stability	3	Perforce, private-equity backed, since 2022-05-18; about 15% of the Portland staff laid off in August 2022 (secondary source)
Cost of staying supported	3.5	Every Core minor must be taken to stay supported; PE Latest gets 12 months of full maintenance

Technical lock-in: 9.0 / 25 (lower is better)

Criterion	Score	Basis
Formats	2.5	Puppet DSL and Hiera are documented text formats, specific to Puppet and OpenVox
Export path	2.5	OpenVox is a drop-in replacement; no converter to other tools
Stack coupling	1	Any OS; own server, PuppetDB and PostgreSQL
Hardware / cloud coupling	0.5	None
Skills and tooling coupling	2.5	Puppet and Ruby skills, less common than Ansible

Integrator fit: 11.0 / 20

Criterion	Score	Basis
Partner programme openness	2.5	Partner programme terms not found; vendor sells direct
Multi-tenancy and self-service	2.5	RBAC, node groups and environments; no tenant model
API and infrastructure-as-code	3.5	PuppetDB, orchestrator, RBAC and code manager APIs; Bolt plans
Skills and certification	2.5	Training exists; current certification status not found

AI leverage: 9.0 / 20

How the product uses AI, scored per year like capability. Only GA counts.

Criterion	2019	2022	Today	Latest step
AI code and plan generation	0	0	3	2025: PE 2025.7: Infra Assistant code assist for code, tasks and plans (PE Advanced)
AI platform stack	0	0	0	2015: None
AI-assisted operations	0	0	3	2025: PE 2025.4: Infra Assistant natural-language queries about the estate (PE Advanced)
Agent openness	2	2	3	2025: PE 2025.7: Puppet MCP server authenticated with PE API keys; no GA or preview label found

Year by year: 2015: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2025: 9 · 2026: 9

AI say-do, 2023 to 2026: 2 AI items announced; 2 GA, 0 still preview, 0 pending, 0 dropped. Both items are limited to PE Advanced. The MCP server carries no GA or preview label in the documentation and is counted as shipped.

Puppet ships a code assistant, an operator assistant and an official MCP server, all inside the top edition and all within one year of their announcement. The MCP server exposes documentation and entity lookups with PE API keys; it has no published guardrail or audit model, so it stays at the preview anchor.

Reading

Puppet's engine still scores as high on configuration depth as any tool in this Ledger, and the commercial terms around it changed more than any other product here between November 2024 and August 2026. Supported builds left the public repositories in February 2025, the free tier became a 25-node development licence under an EULA, the AI features sit in a new top edition, and the support model shortened to Latest and Latest minus 1. Capability kept rising through that period with Edge, vulnerability remediation and Infra Assistant. A buyer should read the Puppet Core EULA against their own use and node count before standardising, and compare the per-node quote with the cost of running OpenVox with partner support.

Open questions and items to re-score

Exact release date of PE 2026.0; the release notes page says October 2026.
Whether the Ecosystem Advisory Board announced on 2024-11-07 was formed.
GA or preview label of the Puppet MCP server; the documentation shows neither.
Partner programme terms and the current certification programme.
The 2017 steps for PDK 1.0 and Puppet Tasks come from editor knowledge; confirm the dates from release notes.
When puppetlabs-aws and puppetlabs-vsphere were marked unsupported; no fall is recorded in Provisioning breadth because no date was found.

	’17	’24	’25
Provisioning breadth			3
Configuration management depth		1
State, planning and safety
Language and authoring	1
Orchestration and self-service	2
Scale and control plane		3
Security and compliance		2
Bare metal and day-2 operations			2
Ecosystem and integrations
AI assistance			1