Prefect

Prefect builds workflow orchestration software for data, machine learning and AI agents. Its open-source Python framework adds scheduling, retries, caching and recovery to workflows, while Prefect Cloud provides a managed control plane. Teams can use managed compute or execute code inside their own infrastructure. FastMCP helps developers build Model Context Protocol servers connecting agents to tools and data; Prefect Horizon adds hosting, a capability registry, tool-level access controls and agent interfaces.

Founded in 2018, Prefect is led by founder and CEO Jeremiah Lowin. Chris White, a day-one colleague and longtime CTO, became president in 2025. Its engineering approach separates durable results from individual workflow identities: configurable cache keys let independent workflows reuse computations, while locks coordinate access and rollback hooks support compensating actions after failures. In July 2026, Prefect announced plans to acquire Dagster Labs, committing to maintain Dagster and Dagster+. Dagster’s focus on defining data assets complements Prefect’s emphasis on executing workflows.

In January 2026, the company reported one million FastMCP downloads a day, with some version powering 70% of MCP servers. FastMCP was also incorporated into the official MCP SDK. In July 2026, Prefect said it had operated profitably over the preceding year.