[opensourcedex]

radar is a free, open source cloud infrastructure management project written in Go and released under Apache-2.0. It has 3,367 GitHub stars, 206 forks and 89 open issues, and was last pushed 5 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #29 of 43 tracked projects in Cloud Infrastructure Management, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available. It gained 14 stars over the last 3 tracked days.

What is radar?

What it is

Radar is an open-source Kubernetes UI delivered as a single Go binary. It runs on a laptop or in a cluster, connects to the Kubernetes API, and needs no account, agents, or custom resources. It lives in the cloud-native Kubernetes ecosystem and uses the Apache-2.0 license.

Radar solves the problem of inspecting a cluster without a heavy dashboard or external service. It shows issues, topology, events, Helm releases, GitOps state, traffic, audits, and upgrade impact. It also exposes an MCP server for AI agents.

Key capabilities

  • Radar provides views for topology, resources, the image filesystem, the event timeline, Helm releases, comparison, TLS, GitOps, traffic, cost, audits, upgrade impact, RBAC, auth, and MCP context.
  • It watches cluster state with informers and pushes browser updates with server-sent events, and it is tested on tens of thousands of pods under cluster churn.
  • It runs as a kubectl plugin, a desktop app, or an in-cluster Helm deployment.
  • It supports GKE, EKS, AKS, minikube, kind, k3s, and other conformant clusters.
  • It works with Argo CD and Flux CD for GitOps workflows.
  • It can run without cloud sync or cluster telemetry, including in environments with outbound egress blocked.
  • It provides MCP context so AI agents can inspect, investigate, and operate clusters.

Who uses it and how

  • Platform engineers use Radar from a laptop to inspect resources, topology, events, and Helm releases without server-side components.
  • Operators use the timeline, compare, traffic, TLS, and audit views to investigate failures, changes, service behavior, and permissions.
  • GitOps teams use Radar to correlate cluster state with Argo CD or Flux CD workflows.
  • Teams that need shared access deploy Radar in-cluster with Helm and scope access through Kubernetes RBAC.
  • AI agent workflows use the MCP server to gather cluster context and operate resources.

Getting started

Typical local install uses the shell installer, Homebrew, Krew, Scoop, PowerShell, or GitHub Releases, then the kubectl radar command. For shared team use, operators can deploy Radar with Helm into a cluster.

When to use it — and when not to

Radar is useful when a team wants a private, low-install Kubernetes UI that can run locally, support airgapped environments, and give AI agents cluster context. It is less suitable when a team needs a long-established project, because Radar is one year old and has 89 open issues. For self-hosted team access, operators must deploy the Helm chart and manage Kubernetes RBAC, while the README does not mention database, storage, or SMTP dependencies.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

Radar

Radar - The missing open-source Kubernetes UI | Product Hunt

The missing open-source Kubernetes UI.
Single binary. No account required. Free forever.

🌐 radarhq.io · Docs · Releases

Topology, resources, Helm, GitOps, traffic, audit, upgrade impact, and MCP context for AI agents — from your laptop or in-cluster.

CI CodeQL Release Downloads Helm repo downloads Discord License Go

Table of contents

Install and run in 30 seconds:

curl -fsSL https://get.radarhq.io | sh && kubectl radar

More installation options ↓

Why Radar?

  • Zero install on your cluster — runs on your laptop, talks to the K8s API directly
  • Single binary — no dependencies, no agents, no CRDs
  • Fast on big clusters — tested on tens of thousands of pods, with responsive views and live updates under real cluster churn
  • Private by design — your cluster data stays on your machine. No account, no agents, no cloud sync, no cluster telemetry
  • Airgapped-friendly — runs as a single binary against the Kubernetes API and works in locked-down environments with outbound egress blocked
  • Real-time — watches your cluster via informers, pushes updates to the browser via SSE
  • Works everywhere — GKE, EKS, AKS, minikube, kind, k3s, or any conformant cluster
  • AI-ready — built-in MCP server lets AI agents inspect, investigate, and operate your cluster through Radar
  • In-cluster option — deploy with Helm for shared team access with RBAC-scoped permissions

"Have Radar deployed at work. As far as Kubernetes dashboards go, this is one of the best." — u/TheRealNetroxen

Installation

Quick Install:

curl -fsSL https://get.radarhq.io | sh

Homebrew:

brew install skyhook-io/tap/radar

Then run: kubectl radar. Quick install, PowerShell, Homebrew, and Scoop also set up the radar shorthand. Krew and direct downloads use kubectl radar unless you add your own radar symlink.

More install options — Desktop App (macOS/Linux/Windows), Krew, Scoop, In-Cluster Helm
CLI

Krew (kubectl plugin manager):

kubectl krew install radar

Scoop (Windows):

scoop bucket add skyhook https://github.com/skyhook-io/scoop-bucket
scoop install radar

PowerShell (Windows):

irm https://get.radarhq.io/install.ps1 | iex

Direct download — GitHub Releases for macOS, Linux, or Windows.

Desktop App

Native desktop app — no terminal needed.

Homebrew (macOS):

brew install --cask skyhook-io/tap/radar-desktop

Debian/Ubuntu — download the .deb from GitHub Releases, then:

sudo apt install ./radar-desktop_*.deb

Fedora/RHEL — download the .rpm from GitHub Releases, then:

sudo rpm -i radar-desktop_*.rpm

Scoop (Windows):

scoop bucket add skyhook https://github.com/skyhook-io/scoop-bucket
scoop install radar-desktop

Windows (direct download) — GitHub Releases.

In-Cluster Deployment

Deploy to your cluster for shared team access:

helm repo add skyhook https://skyhook-io.github.io/helm-charts
helm install radar skyhook/radar -n radar --create-namespace

See the In-Cluster Deployment Guide for Gateway API and ingress exposure, authentication, and RBAC configuration.

Usage

# Opens browser automatically
kubectl radar

# Quick install, PowerShell, Homebrew, and Scoop also set up the bare command
radar

To inspect an in-cluster Radar Cloud installation without changing it:

radar cloud status
radar cloud status --context my-cluster
radar cloud status --context my-cluster --namespace radar --release radar

The command reports installation ownership, chart and image, agent readiness, and Cloud configuration without printing the connection token. Passing both --namespace and --release selects an exact installation. Live tunnel status is reported by Radar Cloud using the token in the referenced Kubernetes Secret. If the Secret or Hub is unavailable, local installation diagnostics still run. Interactive terminals use restrained status colors; set NO_COLOR (or pipe the output) for plain text. URLs, tokens, and suggested commands remain unstyled.

CLI Flags

The table below covers common startup flags. See the full CLI reference; radar --help is authoritative for the installed version.

Flag Default Description
--kubeconfig ~/.kube/config Path to primary kubeconfig file
--kubeconfig-dir Comma-separated directories containing additional kubeconfig files
--namespace (all) Initial namespace filter (supports multi-select in the UI; also used as RBAC fallback for namespace-scoped users)
--namespaces (all) Initial namespace filters as a comma-separated list, e.g. --namespaces ns1,ns2,ns3. Use this when your identity can list resources in specific namespaces but cannot list namespaces cluster-wide.
--namespace-scope false Pin namespaced informer caches to a single namespace for large clusters (scoping to multiple namespaces is not supported yet). Requires --namespace, a kubeconfig context namespace, or a saved local single-namespace pick. Local mode can rebuild the cache when switching namespaces; auth/cloud mode locks the shared cache to the startup namespace.
--port 9280 Server port
--listen-address 127.0.0.1 HTTP listen address. Use 127.0.0.1 or localhost for local-only access; use 0.0.0.0 explicitly for containers, VMs, WSL, or remote/shared access, together with authentication and network controls.
--base-path Serve Radar under a URL prefix such as /radar. Use when an ingress forwards a subpath without stripping it — everything, including /api/health, moves under the prefix. Not supported with --cloud-url.
--no-browser false Don't auto-open browser
--browser Browser to use when opening the UI, e.g. firefox, google-chrome, or Google Chrome on macOS
--timeline-storage memory Timeline storage backend: memory, sqlite, or postgres
--timeline-db ~/.radar/timeline.db Path to SQLite database (when using sqlite storage)
--timeline-max-size 1Gi Maximum SQLite DB + WAL size before pruning oldest events (e.g. 800Mi, 8Gi; 0 disables)
--history-limit 10000 Maximum events to retain in timeline (memory only)
--disable-exec false Disable terminal and debug shell
--disable-helm-write false Disable Helm write operations
--disable-local-terminal false Disable

readme truncated — read the full docs on github

Frequently asked questions

Is radar free to use?

radar is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does radar do?

The missing open-source Kubernetes UI with a built-in MCP server for AI agents. See what's broken, why, and what changed. Issues, Topology, event timeline, Helm

What is radar written in?

radar is primarily written in Go. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/skyhook-io/radar, and it has 3,367 GitHub stars.