- 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!