---
slug: /quickstart/319191/basics
displayed_sidebar: "quickstart"
hide_table_of_contents: true
title: "Understand the basics of Dagger"
---

# Quickstart

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import PartialHowDaggerWorks from '../partials/_how_does_dagger_work.mdx';

## Understand the basics of Dagger

Before diving into the code, let's address some common questions about Dagger:

### What is Dagger?

Dagger is a programmable CI/CD engine that runs your pipelines in containers. It enables you to develop your CI/CD pipelines as code, in the same programming language as your application, and then executes those pipelines entirely as [standard OCI containers](https://opencontainers.org/).

### Who is Dagger for?

Dagger may be a good fit if you are...

* A developer wishing your CI pipelines were code instead of YAML.
* Your team's "designated devops person", hoping to replace a pile of artisanal scripts with something more powerful.
* A platform engineer writing custom tooling, with the goal of unifying continuous delivery across organizational silos.
* A cloud-native developer advocate or solutions engineer, looking to demonstrate a complex integration on short notice.

### How does Dagger work?

<PartialHowDaggerWorks />
