Kusion is an intent-driven Platform Orchestrator written in Go that serves as the core component of an Internal Developer Platform (IDP). The project enables application-centric development by allowing developers to write a single application specification called AppConfiguration, which defines workloads and resource dependencies without requiring environment-specific values. Kusion then ensures all necessary infrastructure is provisioned to run the application.
The platform addresses the needs of both application developers and platform engineers. Platform engineers use Kusion to create shared modules and workspace definitions that codify organizational requirements around security, compliance, and finance. These standardized modules abstract the complexity of underlying infrastructure tooling. Application developers then leverage these pre-built modules and workspaces to deploy applications through a self-service model, focusing on building rather than infrastructure management.
Kusion operates through two primary workflows. Day 0 involves platform engineers setting up modules and workspaces that serve as the foundation for application deployment. Day 1 involves application developers using these standardized components to deploy their applications and supporting infrastructure. This separation of concerns allows the platform team to maintain centralized control while developers work with repeatable, standardized processes.
Starting with version 0.14.0, Kusion introduced Kusion Server alongside the existing CLI, featuring a Developer Portal. Kusion Server runs as a long-running service providing CLI functionality plus additional capabilities for managing application metadata and visualizing application resource graphs. It manages Projects, Stacks, Workspaces, and Runs centrally through the Developer Portal and RESTful APIs, enabling integration with other systems.
Kusion is classified across multiple infrastructure and cloud-native categories including management, infrastructure-as-code, containerization, deployment automation, orchestration, and Kubernetes.
The project is licensed under Apache 2.0 and holds an OpenSSF Best Practices badge. It supports multiple languages in its documentation including English, Chinese, and Hindi. The platform is designed to simplify application delivery while maintaining the infrastructure standards and governance that organizations require.
