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KAI Scheduler

open source / Overall score: 3.2

Kubernetes-native scheduler for AI workloads at large scale. It schedules whole PodGroups rather than individual pods, supports hierarchical queues with fair-share over time, bin-packing and spread placement, topology-aware scheduling, and separates workload priority from preemptibility. It runs alongside other schedulers on the same cluster rather than replacing them.

Originated at Run:ai and was published by NVIDIA; the repository now lives in its own kai-scheduler organization rather than under NVIDIA, and the github.com/NVIDIA/KAI-Scheduler path redirects there. Scored as its own product, separately from the closed NVIDIA Run:ai platform. Verified 2026-09-15 via the repository and its recursive tree.

Openness

5 high confidence

5.0

license: Apache-2.0(OSI)
source: public(the scheduler you run builds from this repo)
core-gated: ungated(a 2,004-entry recursive tree carries one root LICENSE and no path matching enterprise, ee, commercial or proprietary)

Apache-2.0 with the whole scheduler in the open tree. NVIDIA sells Run:ai beside it, but that is a separate product rather than a fuller version of this one, and the 2,004-entry recursive tree carries no enterprise, ee or commercial path and no license-key machinery.

https://github.com/kai-scheduler/KAI-Scheduler recorded 2026-09-15
Repository page for kai-scheduler/KAI-Scheduler: Apache-2.0 license, public and unarchived, in the kai-scheduler organization rather than NVIDIA's. Establishes the license, the source, and the current repository identity.
https://api.github.com/repos/kai-scheduler/KAI-Scheduler/git/trees/main?recursive=1 recorded 2026-09-15
Full untruncated recursive tree of the default branch, 2,004 entries. One root LICENSE. No path matches enterprise, ee, commercial or proprietary. A tree lists paths; it is cited for that and for nothing about the vendor's offerings.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/software/run-ai/ recorded 2026-09-16
NVIDIA's Run:ai page, which describes the open KAI Scheduler as 'based on NVIDIA Run:ai' and sells Run:ai as a separate enterprise platform. Establishes that the commercial product is a different thing rather than a fuller edition of this scheduler.

Adoption

2 low confidence

2.0

1,520 GitHub stars. The project ships as container images and a Helm chart with no package-registry artifact, so no usage-volume channel exists and the band rests on stars.

https://github.com/kai-scheduler/KAI-Scheduler recorded 2026-09-15
Repository page showing the star count for kai-scheduler/KAI-Scheduler.

Capability

5 medium confidence

5.0

The scheduler decides which nodes a PodGroup lands on and admits the group as one allocation, which is band 5 in this category. Banded level with volcano, which performs the same function on the same substrate.

https://github.com/kai-scheduler/KAI-Scheduler recorded 2026-09-15
Repository page and README describing KAI Scheduler as a Kubernetes-native scheduler for AI workloads, with hierarchical PodGroups, bin-packing and spread scheduling, topology-aware scheduling and time-based fair-share.

Verified 2026-09-15