Creator here. We built Radar because the Kubernetes dashboard/IDE space got frustrating:
- Lens got acquired, went partially closed-source, became slow, now requires login
- k9s is solid but terminal-only with a steep learning curve
- Official Kubernetes Dashboard is archived (Headlamp is the successor but missing features and not amazing UX)
- Enterprise tools want per-node pricing and mandatory cloud sync
We had built internal tooling at Skyhook for debugging clusters. Customers kept asking for it, so we carved it out and open-sourced it.
Radar is local-first: single binary, runs on your machine (or can install on cluster if you prefer), uses your Kubeconfig, blazing fast. No agents, no CRDs, no account. Works airgapped.
Creator here. We built Radar because the Kubernetes dashboard/IDE space got frustrating:
- Lens got acquired, went partially closed-source, became slow, now requires login
- k9s is solid but terminal-only with a steep learning curve
- Official Kubernetes Dashboard is archived (Headlamp is the successor but missing features and not amazing UX)
- Enterprise tools want per-node pricing and mandatory cloud sync
We had built internal tooling at Skyhook for debugging clusters. Customers kept asking for it, so we carved it out and open-sourced it.
Radar is local-first: single binary, runs on your machine (or can install on cluster if you prefer), uses your Kubeconfig, blazing fast. No agents, no CRDs, no account. Works airgapped.
What it does:
- Topology graph - visualize how resources connect (ownership chains, service→pod routing, ingress paths)
- Resource browser with YAML editing (Monaco), logs, exec into pods
- Real-time timeline of events and resource changes
- Helm management - inspect, upgrade, rollback from UI
- FluxCD and ArgoCD support - sync status and operations built-in
- Network traffic visualization via Cilium Hubble or Caretta
- Container image filesystem inspection without exec
Tech: Go backend using client-go SharedInformers, changes pushed to browser via SSE. React frontend embedded in binary. ~30MB total.
Install: brew install skyhook-io/tap/radar && kubectl radar
Fastest (we timed 15 seconds from hitting install to live dashboard): curl -fsSL skyhook.io/get-radar.sh | bash && kubectl radar
Apache 2.0, free forever. We're the Skyhook team (YC W23).
Happy to answer questions about architecture, K8s informer patterns, or anything else - and would love to hear what you think!