Kubernetes Dashboard is a general-purpose web-based user interface for Kubernetes clusters written in Go. The project is now archived and no longer maintained due to lack of active maintainers and contributors, as stated prominently in its README. The repository recommends users consider Headlamp, a recently moved project under sig-ui, as an alternative for continued development and support.
The dashboard enables users to manage applications running within clusters and troubleshoot them, while also providing cluster management capabilities. As of version 7.0.0, the project transitioned to Helm-based installation exclusively, dropping support for manifest-based installation. This change was driven by the adoption of a multi-container setup with a hard dependency on Kong gateway API proxy, making manifest-based installation infeasible. The versioning scheme was also modified, with appVersion dropped from the Helm chart since each module in the multi-container architecture is now versioned separately, with the Helm chart version serving as the application version.
The installation process relies on a single-container, DBless Kong installation functioning as a gateway that connects all containers and exposes the user interface. Users can then deploy any ingress controller or proxy in front of the Kong gateway. The Helm chart values and additional customization options are documented in the repository's charts directory and on ArtifactHub.
Documentation is organized into several sections within the docs directory, including common entry-level overviews, user guides, access control information, and developer guides. The access control documentation covers how to control dashboard access and create sample users for login purposes. The developer guide provides essential information for contributors wanting to test, run, and work on the dashboard locally.
GitGenius activity data reveals that across 214 tracked issues and pull requests, the median response latency was 0.0 hours with a mean of 82.3 hours, indicating relatively responsive issue handling despite the project's eventual archival. The most frequently applied issue labels were kind/bug with 119 occurrences, kind/feature with 68 occurrences, and lifecycle/rotten with 59 occurrences. The most active contributors tracked were floreks with 207 events, maciaszczykm with 76 events, and lprimak with 25 events. The repository shares overlapping contributors with microsoft/vscode, containerd/containerd, and gitpod-io/gitpod, suggesting cross-project collaboration within the broader Kubernetes and container ecosystem.
The project is classified across numerous categories including webui, cluster management, workloads, pod management, namespace control, resource monitoring, user authentication, and visualization. These classifications reflect the dashboard's comprehensive scope as a management and monitoring tool for Kubernetes environments. The project is licensed under Apache License 2.0 and was developed by The Kubernetes Dashboard Authors.
