A Curated List of Alibaba Open‑Source Developer Tools for Backend Development

1. Java Online Diagnostic Tool Arthas

Arthas is an open‑source Java online diagnostic tool released by Alibaba in September 2018.

Usage scenarios:

Identify which JAR a class was loaded from and troubleshoot class‑related exceptions.

Verify whether code changes have been deployed.

Debug issues in production without adding logs.

Diagnose user‑specific data processing problems that cannot be reproduced offline.

Obtain a global view of system runtime status.

Monitor JVM real‑time performance.

Tutorials: Basic – https://alibaba.github.io/arthas/arthas-tutorials?language=cn&id=arthas-basics; Advanced – https://alibaba.github.io/arthas/arthas-tutorials?language=cn&id=arthas-advanced

Acquisition: Free, open‑source at https://github.com/alibaba/arthas

2. IDE Plugin Cloud Toolkit

Cloud Toolkit is an IDE plugin that streamlines development, testing, diagnosis, and deployment, supporting IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, PyCharm, and Maven.

Usage scenarios:

Reduce repetitive packaging after code changes.

Switch between Maven, Git, and other DevOps scripts.

Upload files via SCP, XShell, SecureCRT, etc.

Manage file uploads to server directories.

Tutorials:

IntelliJ IDEA – https://help.aliyun.com/document_detail/98762.html

Eclipse – https://help.aliyun.com/document_detail/29970.html

PyCharm – https://help.aliyun.com/document_detail/112740.html

Maven – https://help.aliyun.com/document_detail/108682.html

Acquisition: Free at https://www.aliyun.com/product/cloudtoolkit

3. Chaos Engineering Tool ChaosBlade

ChaosBlade follows chaos engineering principles to inject various fault scenarios (latency, exceptions, return values, parameter changes, etc.) for improving distributed system resilience.

Usage scenarios:

Assess microservice fault tolerance.

Validate container orchestration configurations.

Test PaaS layer robustness.

Tutorial: https://github.com/chaosblade-io/chaosblade/wiki/新手指南

Acquisition: Free, open‑source (same link as tutorial).

4. Java Code Convention Scanning Plugin

This plugin, written in Kotlin, detects non‑standard Java code patterns and provides suggestions.

Tutorials:

IDEA – https://github.com/alibaba/p3c/wiki/IDEA插件使用文档

Eclipse – https://github.com/alibaba/p3c/wiki/Eclipse插件使用文档

Acquisition: Free, open‑source at https://github.com/alibaba/p3c

5. Application Real‑Time Monitoring Tool ARMS

ARMS is an APM solution offering front‑end, application, and custom monitoring.

Usage scenarios:

Handle large numbers of alerts efficiently.

Respond quickly to customer complaints.

Maintain user experience despite high server costs.

Tutorials:

Front‑end monitoring – https://help.aliyun.com/documentdetail/106086.html

Application monitoring – https://help.aliyun.com/documentdetail/63796.html

Custom monitoring – https://help.aliyun.com/document_detail/47474.html

Acquisition: Paid at https://www.aliyun.com/product/arms

6. Static Site Generator Docsite

Docsite provides a unified solution for websites, documentation, blogs, and communities, supporting React, static rendering, i18n, SEO, markdown, global search, and custom themes.

Tutorial: https://docsite.js.org/zh-cn/docs/installation.html

Acquisition: Free, open‑source at https://github.com/txd-team/docsite

7. Android Fast‑Compile Tool Freeline

Freeline caches build artifacts to achieve second‑level compilation and deployment for Android projects, available as an Android Studio plugin.

Tutorial: https://github.com/alibaba/freeline/blob/master/README-zh.md

Acquisition: Free at https://github.com/alibaba/freeline

8. Performance Testing Tool PTS

PTS simulates massive user traffic, supports conversion of JMeter scripts, and can run native JMeter tests.

Tutorial: https://help.aliyun.com/document_detail/70290.html

Acquisition: Paid at https://www.aliyun.com/product/pts

9. Cloud‑Native Developer Tool KT

KT simplifies integration testing under Kubernetes, improving development efficiency on K8s.

Tutorial: https://yq.aliyun.com/articles/690519

Acquisition: Free at https://yq.aliyun.com/download/3393

10. Architecture Visualization Tool AHAS

AHAS offers architecture visualization for container environments, fault injection, high‑availability assessment, and one‑click flow control.

Usage scenarios:

Visualize resource composition and interactions during service‑mesh migration.

Introduce realistic fault scenarios and drills.

Obtain low‑threshold flow control and degradation features.

Tutorial: https://help.aliyun.com/document_detail/90323.html

Acquisition: Free at https://www.aliyun.com/product/ahas

11. Data Processing Tool EasyExcel

EasyExcel efficiently parses and generates Excel files in Java, reducing memory consumption from hundreds of megabytes to kilobytes.

Tutorial: https://github.com/alibaba/easyexcel/blob/master/quickstart.md

Acquisition: Open‑source at https://github.com/alibaba/easyexcel

12. iOS JSON Library HandyJSON

HandyJSON is a Swift library for JSON serialization/deserialization without requiring NSObject inheritance.

Tutorial: https://github.com/alibaba/HandyJSON/blob/master/README_cn.md

Acquisition: Open‑source at https://github.com/alibaba/HandyJSON

13. Cloud‑Native Serverless Platform EDAS Serverless

EDAS Serverless is a Kubernetes‑based serverless platform for applications and microservices, supporting Spring Cloud, Dubbo, and more.

Tutorial: https://help.aliyun.com/document_detail/102048.html

Acquisition: Free during public beta at https://help.aliyun.com/document_detail/97792.html

14. Database Connection Pool Druid

Druid is a Java database connection pool offering powerful monitoring and extensibility.

Tutorial: https://github.com/alibaba/druid/wiki/常见问题

Acquisition: Open‑source at http://central.maven.org/maven2/com/alibaba/druid/

15. Java Toolset Alibaba Dragonwell

Alibaba Dragonwell is an Alibaba‑customized OpenJDK distribution optimized for large‑scale e‑commerce, finance, and logistics workloads, compatible with Java SE.

Tutorial: https://github.com/alibaba/dragonwell8/wiki/阿里巴巴Dragonwell8用户指南

Acquisition: Open‑source at https://github.com/alibaba/dragonwell8