Headlamp
- Web: https://headlamp.dev/
- Source: https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/headlamp
- Official k8s SIG UI subproject
- Go backend
- React frontend
- Electron desktop
About Headlamp¶
Headlamp is an extensible, RBAC-aware Kubernetes web UI that runs both in-cluster (as a pod you port-forward or expose via Ingress) and as a native desktop application (Electron).
It is an official Kubernetes project under SIG UI, adopted by Oracle, Microsoft, Swisscom, and others.
What distinguishes it from alternatives like Lens or the vanilla Kubernetes Dashboard is its plugin system: you can add custom sidebar sections, routes, resource detail panels, app bar actions, and dashboards without forking the project.
Plugins are First-Class Citizens
Flux, Backstage, Inspektor Gadget, Trivy, and cert-manager all have Headlamp plugins today.
Design Pillars¶
Here are the key design principles baked into every decision:
- Extensibility first: any UI customization should be achievable via a plugin
- RBAC-adaptive UI: action buttons appear only when the user's role permits them
- Multi-cluster: one Headlamp instance can manage N clusters simultaneously
- Real-time: Kubernetes watch events flow through a WebSocket multiplexer
- Security: the browser never holds cluster credentials directly; all
requests proxy through
headlamp-server