KubeDiagrams

Generate Kubernetes architecture diagrams from Kubernetes manifest files, kustomization files, Helm charts, and actual cluster state.

There are several tools to generate Kubernetes architecture diagrams (see here). The main originality of KubeDiagrams is its configurability allowing for instance to deal with custom Kubernetes resources.

Examples

Architecture diagram for official Kubernetes WordPress tutorial manifests:

Architecture diagram for official Kubernetes ZooKeeper tutorial manifests:

Architecture diagram of a deployed Cassandra instance:

Architecture diagram for Train Ticket：A Benchmark Microservice System:

Architecture diagram of the Minikube Ingress Addon:

Architecture diagram for the Kube Prometheus Stack chart:

Architecture diagram for free5gc-k8s manifests:

Architecture diagram for open5gs-k8s manifests:

Architecture diagram for the Towards5GS-helm chart:

Architecture diagram for a deployed CronJob instance:

Architecture diagram for NetworkPolicy resources:

Many other architecture diagrams are available into examples/.

All the examples are

1. official Kubernetes WordPress tutorial
2. official Kubernetes ZooKeeper tutorial
3. official Kubernetes Cassandra tutorial
4. Train Ticket
5. minikube architecture diagrams
6. k0s architecture diagrams
7. Kube Prometheus Stack
8. free5gc-k8s
9. open5gs-k8s
10. Towards5GS-helm
11. OpenAirInterface 5G Core Network
12. docker-open5gs
13. Miscellaneous examples
14. Some Helm charts
15. LeaderWorkerSet API

Prerequisites

Following software must be installed:

• Python 3.9 or higher
• dot command (Graphviz)

Getting Started

Following command installs KubeDiagrams and all its Python dependencies, i.e., PyYAML and Diagrams.

# using pip (pip3)
pip install KubeDiagrams

Usage

KubeDiagrams provides two commands: kube-diagrams and helm-diagrams.

kube-diagrams

kube-diagrams generates a Kubernetes architecture diagram from one or several Kubernetes manifest files.

kube-diagrams -h
usage: kube-diagrams [-h] [-o OUTPUT] [-f FORMAT] [-c CONFIG] [-v] [--without-namespace] filename [filename ...]

Generate Kubernetes architecture diagrams from Kubernetes manifest files

positional arguments:
  filename              the Kubernetes manifest filename to process

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        output diagram filename
  -f FORMAT, --format FORMAT
                        output format, allowed formats are png (default), jpg, svg, pdf, and dot
  -c CONFIG, --config CONFIG
                        custom kube-diagrams configuration file
  -v, --verbose         verbosity, set to false by default
  --without-namespace   disable namespace cluster generation

Examples:

# generate a diagram from a manifest
kube-diagrams -o cassandra.png examples/cassandra/cassandra.yml

# generate a diagram from a kustomize folder
kubectl kustomize path_to_a_kustomize_folder | kube-diagrams - -o diagram.png

# generate a diagram from the actual default namespace state
kubectl get all -o yaml | kube-diagrams -o default-namespace.png -

# generate a diagram of all workload and service resources from all namespaces
kubectl get all --all-namespaces -o yaml | kube-diagrams -o all-namespaces.png -

helm-diagrams

helm-diagrams generates a Kubernetes architecture diagram from an Helm chart.

helm-diagrams takes only one argument - the URL of the Helm chart - but requires that the helm command was installed.

Examples:

# generate a diagram for the Helm chart 'cert-manager' available in HTTP repository 'charts.jetstack.io'
helm-diagrams https://charts.jetstack.io/cert-manager

# generate a diagram for the Helm chart 'argo-cd' available in OCI repository 'ghcr.io'
helm-diagrams oci://ghcr.io/argoproj/argo-helm/argo-cd

# generate a diagram for the Helm chart 'some-chart' available locally
helm-diagrams some-path/some-chart

With Docker/Podman

KubeDiagrams images are available in Docker Hub.

# For usage with Podman, replace 'docker' by 'podman' in the following lines.

# generate a diagram from a manifest
docker run -v "$(pwd)":/work philippemerle/kubediagrams kube-diagrams -o cassandra.png examples/cassandra/cassandra.yml

# generate a diagram from a kustomize folder
kubectl kustomize path_to_a_kustomize_folder | docker run -v "$(pwd)":/work -i philippemerle/kubediagrams kube-diagrams - -o diagram.png

# generate a diagram from the actual default namespace state
kubectl get all -o yaml | docker run -v "$(pwd)":/work -i philippemerle/kubediagrams kube-diagrams -o default-namespace.png -

# generate a diagram of all workload and service resources from all namespaces
kubectl get all --all-namespaces -o yaml | docker run -v "$(pwd)":/work -i philippemerle/kubediagrams kube-diagrams -o all-namespaces.png -

# generate a diagram for the Helm chart 'cert-manager' available in HTTP repository 'charts.jetstack.io'
docker run -v "$(pwd)":/work philippemerle/kubediagrams helm-diagrams https://charts.jetstack.io/cert-manager

# generate a diagram for the Helm chart 'argo-cd' available in OCI repository 'ghcr.io'
docker run -v "$(pwd)":/work philippemerle/kubediagrams helm-diagrams oci://ghcr.io/argoproj/argo-helm/argo-cd

Features

Kubernetes resources

KubeDiagrams supported the following 47 Kubernetes resource types:

Kind	ApiGroup	Versions	Icon
APIService	apiregistration.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
ClusterRole	rbac.authorization.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
ClusterRoleBinding	rbac.authorization.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
ConfigMap		v1
CronJob	batch	v1beta1 v1
CSIDriver	storage.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
CSINode	storage.k8s.io	v1
CSIStorageCapacity	storage.k8s.io	v1
CustomResourceDefinition	apiextensions.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
DaemonSet	apps	v1beta2 v1
Deployment	apps	v1beta1 v1beta2 v1
Endpoints		v1
EndpointSlice	discovery.k8s.io	v1
Group	rbac.authorization.k8s.io	v1
HorizontalPodAutoscaler	autoscaling	v1 v2beta1 v2beta2 v2
Ingress	networking.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
IngressClass	networking.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
Job	batch	v1beta1 v1
Lease	coordination.k8s.io	v1
LimitRange		v1
MutatingWebhookConfiguration	admissionregistration.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
Namespace		v1
NetworkAttachmentDefinition	k8s.cni.cncf.io	v1
NetworkPolicy	networking.k8s.io	v1
Node		v1
PersistentVolume		v1
PersistentVolumeClaim		v1
Pod		v1
PodDisruptionBudget	policy	v1beta1 v1
PodSecurityPolicy	policy	v1beta1 v1
PodTemplate		v1
PriorityClass	scheduling.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
ReplicaSet	apps	v1
ReplicationController		v1
ResourceQuota		v1
Role	rbac.authorization.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
RoleBinding	rbac.authorization.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
RuntimeClass	node.k8s.io	v1
Secret		v1
Service		v1
ServiceAccount		v1
StatefulSet	apps	v1beta1 v1beta2 v1
StorageClass	storage.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
User	rbac.authorization.k8s.io	v1
ValidatingWebhookConfiguration	admissionregistration.k8s.io	v1beta1 v1
VerticalPodAutoscaler	autoscaling.k8s.io	v1
VolumeAttachment	storage.k8s.io	v1

Note: The mapping between these supported Kubernetes resources and architecture diagrams is defined into bin/kube-diagrams.yml.

Note: The mapping for any Kubernetes custom resources can be also defined into KubeDiagrams configuration files as illustrated in examples/k0s/KubeDiagrams.yml, examples/kube-prometheus-stack/KubeDiagrams.yml, and examples/lws/KubeDiagrams.yml.

Currently, there are 15 unsupported Kubernetes resource types:

Kind	ApiGroup
Binding
ComponentStatus
Event
ControllerRevision	apps
TokenReview	authentication.k8s.io
LocalSubjectAccessReview	authorization.k8s.io
SelfSubjectAccessReview	authorization.k8s.io
SelfSubjectRulesReview	authorization.k8s.io
SubjectAccessReview	authorization.k8s.io
CertificateSigningRequest	certificates.k8s.io
Event	events.k8s.io
FlowSchema	flowcontrol.apiserver.k8s.io
PriorityLevelConfiguration	flowcontrol.apiserver.k8s.io
NodeMetrics	metrics.k8s.io
PodMetrics	metrics.k8s.io

Kubernetes resources clustering

With KubeDiagrams, Kubernetes resources can be clustered within the architecture diagrams automatically. KubeDiagrams uses the metadata.namespace resource field as first clustering criteria. Then, the metadata.labels keys can be used to define subclusters. Following table lists the predefined mappings between label keys and cluster titles as defined in the bin/kube-diagrams.yml file (see the clusters list).

Label	Cluster Title
app.kubernetes.io/instance	K8s Instance
release	Release
helm.sh/chart	Helm Chart
chart	Chart
app.kubernetes.io/name	K8s Application
app	Application
app.kubernetes.io/component	K8s Component
service	Microservice
tier	Tier

New mappings can be easily defined in custom configuration files (see examples/minikube/KubeDiagrams.yml, examples/k0s/KubeDiagrams.yml, examples/free5gc-k8s/KubeDiagrams.yml, examples/open5gs-k8s/KubeDiagrams.yml, examples/towards5gs-helm/KubeDiagrams.yml, and examples/lws/KubeDiagrams.yml) and provided to KubeDiagrams via the --config command-line option.

Kubernetes resource relationships

With KubeDiagrams, each relationship between Kubernetes resources is represented by a visual edge between visual nodes. Following table lists the predefined edges as defined in the bin/kube-diagrams.yml file (see the edges map).

Edge Kind	Edge Style	Edge Color	Meaning
REFERENCE	solid	black	Used when a resource refers to another resource directly
SELECTOR	dashed	black	Used when a resource refers to other resources via a selector
OWNER	dotted	black	Used when a resource owns another resource
COMMUNICATION	solid	brown	Used to represent ingress and egress networking policies between pods

New edges can be easily defined or redefined in custom configuration files, and provided to KubeDiagrams via the --config command-line option.

Following diagram illustrates all the visual nodes, edges, and clusters supported by default by KubeDiagrams.

Custom diagrams

By default, KubeDiagrams generates diagrams from data contained into Kubernetes manifest files, actual cluster state, kustomization files, or Helm charts automatically. But sometimes, users would like to customize generated diagrams by adding their own clusters, nodes and edges as illustrated in the following diagram:

This previous diagram contains three custom clusters labelled with Amazon Web Service, Account: Philippe Merle and My Elastic Kubernetes Cluster, three custom nodes labelled with Users, Elastic Kubernetes Services, and Philippe Merle, and two custom edges labelled with use and calls. The rest of this custom diagram is generated from actual cluster state for a deployed WordPress application automatically. See examples/wordpress/custom_diagram.kd to define custom diagrams, clusters, nodes and edges declaratively.

GitHub Action

You can use Kube Diagrams (and Helm Diagrams) in your GitHub Action workflows.

name: "Your GitHub Action Name"
on:
  workflow_dispatch: # add your specific triggers (https://docs.github.com/en/actions/writing-workflows/choosing-when-your-workflow-runs/events-that-trigger-workflows)
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: "Generate diagram from Helm chart"
        uses: philippemerle/KubeDiagrams@main
        with:
          type: "helm"
          args: 'https://charts.jetstack.io/cert-manager'

Architecture

Following figure shows the software architecture of KubeDiagrams.

What do they say about it?

Talks

1. Visualizing cloud-native applications with KubeDiagrams, Philippe Merle, PEPR Cloud Taranis Project, February 17, 2025.

Blogs

1. KubeDiagrams, CSDN, April 10, 2025.

2. Generate Kubernetes Architecture Maps Directly from Your Cluster, Abhimanyu Saharan, March 29, 2025.

3. KubeDiagrams 0.2.0 Makes It Way Easier to Visualize Your Kubernetes Setup, Mr.PlanB, Medium, March 27, 2025.

4. Visualising SQL Server in Kubernetes, Andrew Pruski, February 6, 2025.

Social Networks

1. JReuben1's post on X, April 19, 2025.

2. Custom declarative diagrams with KubeDiagrams on Reddit, April 17, 2025.

3. DevOps Radar on LinkedIn, April 1, 2025.

4. Michael Cade's post on X, March 29, 2025.

5. Paco Xu's post on X, March 26, 2025.

6. KubeDiagrams 0.2.0 is out! on Reddit, March 25, 2025.

7. KubeDiagrams: Revolutionizing Cloud Cluster Management! on LinkedIn, March 18, 2025.

8. Anyone know of any repos/open source tools that can create k8 diagrams? on Reddit, March 13, 2025.

9. Automation of diagram creation for Kubernetes, DevSecOps, February/March 2025.

10. Facebook Kubernetes Users Group, February 6, 2025.

11. KubeDiagrams on Reddit, February 4, 2025.

Referencing

1. Cloud Native Landscape

2. Awesome Open Source K8s And Container Tools

3. Kubetools - Curated List of Kubernetes Tools

4. GitHub mingrammer/diagrams

5. Tool of the day, TechOps Examples, February 11, 2025.

Star History

License

This project is licensed under the GPL-3.0 license - see the LICENSE file for details.