KubePilot: CoPilot, Pilot & AutoPilot for Faster Kubernetes Incidents

KubePilot is an open-source Kubernetes troubleshooting cockpit built by the Workstation engineering team. It combines AI-assisted diagnosis (CoPilot), SRE-style cluster browsing (Pilot), and policy-gated remediation (AutoPilot) so platform, SRE, and DevOps teams move from noisy signals to a safe fix — without juggling kubectl tabs mid-incident. Product site: kubepilot.org. Source: github.com/bwalia/kubepilot.

1. Watch the walkthrough

youtu.be/CsiJWpfncqA — Balinder Walia, Workstation.

2. The problem KubePilot solves

Modern clusters emit more signal than humans can triage in a single page: CrashLoops, ImagePullBackOff, OOMKills, node pressure, flaky probes, and YAML drift. Typical response spreads across:

• kubectl history and shell scripts,
• a browser UI (Lens / Rancher / dashboard),
• logs in a third tool,
• an LLM chat with pasted YAML (and no cluster auth).

That fragmentation burns minutes when minutes are the SLA. KubePilot collapses the loop into one cockpit: spot → ask → verify → fix.

3. Mode A — CoPilot (AI-assisted troubleshooting)

CoPilot is the natural-language and automated RCA surface:

• Ask operational questions in plain English (“why is checkout CrashLooping in prod?”).
• One-click AI Analyze on problem pods and events.
• Root-cause analysis with evidence chains, confidence, risk, suggested commands, YAML fixes, and next steps.
• Anomaly detection for CrashLoop, OOM, ImagePull, and node pressure patterns.
• Copy Prompt to reuse the exact diagnosis prompt with your preferred model.
• Designed for Ollama / local models so cluster context can stay on your network.

4. Mode B — Pilot (SRE troubleshooting browser)

Pilot is the Lens/Rancher-style read-only workbench for verification before mutation:

• Browse Deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets, Jobs, Services, Ingresses, ConfigMaps, Secrets, PVCs.
• Pod workbench: overview, containers, events, logs, sanitized YAML, restart counts, uptime.
• Live cluster resource gauges (CPU, memory, disk) — Longhorn-aware where applicable.
• Service topology canvas: Ingress → Service → Workload → Pod with status colours and ports.
• Node LAN, WAN, and tunnel (e.g. WireGuard / flannel) IP classification — not only the overlay address.
• Port-forward tunnels from the UI; multi-cluster kubeconfig upload and context switching without restart.

5. Mode C — AutoPilot (AI fixer with safety rails)

AutoPilot closes the loop with auditable self-healing — never “YOLO apply” as the default:

Control	Purpose
Modes: off / dry-run / active	Preview before apply; keep automation parked when needed
Confidence floors	Skip low-confidence RCAs instead of guessing
Namespace blocklists & action allow-lists	Protect kube-system / prod namespaces; limit mutation types
Cooldowns & hourly caps	Prevent remediation storms
Kill switch	One-click pause for operators
Decision ledger	Executed, skipped, escalated, failed — audit trail
CR-code escalation	Human approval for risky actions

6. Full feature map (from kubepilot.org)

• Pre-built runbooks: seven opinionated diagnostic workflows; custom YAML runbooks with fsnotify hot-reload (user IDs override builtins).
• Durable RCA history: optional embedded SQLite (WAL, no CGO) with retention for reports and anomalies across restarts.
• Alerts & timeline: warnings, events, anomalies, RCA as a searchable ops timeline; optional Slack incident cards.
• AI health chip: know Ollama is ready before an incident depends on it.
• Security-first defaults: optional auth, read-only browsing, mutation gates, CORS policies.
• MCP agent protocol: built-in MCP server for multi-cluster agent orchestration and programmatic access.
• Native iOS companion: SwiftUI app — health cards, pods, logs, RCA, Face ID, widgets, Siri / App Intents.

7. Install options

Prerequisites for source builds: Go 1.22+, Node.js 18+, a reachable cluster + kubeconfig; Ollama recommended for local AI.

7.1 Build from source

git clone https://github.com/bwalia/kubepilot.git
cd kubepilot
make dashboard-install
make dashboard
make build
KUBEPILOT_KUBECONFIG="$HOME/.kube/config" ./dist/kubepilot serve --dashboard-port=8383
# Dashboard/API: http://localhost:8383
# MCP server: :9090

7.2 Helm (cluster install)

helm repo add kubepilot https://bwalia.github.io/kubepilot
helm repo update
helm upgrade --install kubepilot kubepilot/kubepilot \
  -n kubepilot --create-namespace
kubectl port-forward svc/kubepilot -n kubepilot 8080:8080
# Open http://localhost:8080

Also supported: NodePort, Ingress (+ cert-manager TLS), LoadBalancer, and values overrides — see the chart README on GitHub.

7.3 Docker

docker run --rm -p 8383:8383 -p 9090:9090 \
  -v "$HOME/.kube:/root/.kube:ro" \
  ghcr.io/kubepilot/kubepilot:latest \
  serve --dashboard-port=8383

7.4 iOS companion

cd ios
brew install xcodegen
./generate.sh
open KubePilot.xcodeproj
# Point the app at http://<server-ip>:8383

8. Recommended operating model

1. Day 0: run Pilot read-only against a non-prod cluster; wire Ollama; confirm AI health chip.
2. Day 1: use CoPilot AI Analyze on known bad pods; compare RCA to your runbooks; tune Copy Prompt into your team LLM.
3. Day 2: enable AutoPilot in dry-run only; review the decision ledger for a week.
4. Day 3+: promote selected namespaces to active with tight allow-lists, confidence floors, and Slack alerts; keep kube-system blocked.
5. Always: kill switch rehearsed; CR-code path for risky mutations; MCP tools behind auth (see our agentic security brief).

9. Production checklist

• ☐ Auth enabled for any network-reachable dashboard.
• ☐ AutoPilot starts in dry-run; active only after ledger review.
• ☐ Namespace blocklist includes system / shared namespaces.
• ☐ Hourly caps and cooldowns set below storm thresholds.
• ☐ Ollama (or approved LLM path) monitored via AI health.
• ☐ Slack or pager integration for high-severity anomalies.
• ☐ GitOps still owns desired state — AutoPilot is a tactical fixer, not a substitute for Argo CD / Flux.
• ☐ Star and track releases: github.com/bwalia/kubepilot.

10. Why Workstation ships this open source

Workstation builds automation platforms for real ops teams. KubePilot is our bet that AIOps only works when diagnosis and remediation share one evidence trail — and when automation is gated like a human SRE would gate a change. We publish it under open source so platform teams can run it on their own networks, extend runbooks, and wire MCP agents without vendor lock-in.

Start at kubepilot.org, clone the repo, and watch the walkthrough on YouTube. Companion summary: blog post.