# k8spacket/k8spacket

k8spacket - collects TCP traffic and TLS connection metadata in the Kubernetes cluster using eBPF and visualizes in Grafana

Repository: https://github.com/k8spacket/k8spacket
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/k8spacket
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: grafana, observability, visualization, packetsniffing, tcp, o11y, metrics, prometheus, k8spacket, cilium, ebpf, tls, bpf2go, ebpf-programs, ebpf-tc
Last push: 2026-08-05T15:08:04+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 93/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 96, release rhythm 84, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1522, "days_push": 28, "days_rel": 28, "gap_med": 55, "n_releases_24m": 14}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1095, forks 61 (observed 2026-08-28T04:03:34.094544+00:00)

## What it is
k8spacket is a Kubernetes tool that collects TCP traffic and TLS connection metadata using eBPF (tracepoints and traffic-control filters) and exposes it as Prometheus metrics. It ships Grafana dashboards to visualize inter-workload traffic, external traffic destinations, and TLS certificate expiration.

## Use cases
- visualize TCP traffic between workloads in a Kubernetes cluster
- see which external domains my cluster pods connect to
- monitor TLS versions and cipher suites used by cluster connections
- alert on expiring TLS certificates in the cluster
- trace how many bytes each pod sends and receives
- understand socket connection lifetimes in Kubernetes

## When to choose
- you need eBPF-based network observability for Kubernetes without sidecars
- you want TLS handshake and certificate expiration visibility in Grafana
- you need to map cluster-internal and external traffic flows per workload

## When to avoid
- your kernel is older than 5.4 or lacks BTF support
- you need deep packet payload inspection rather than connection metadata
- you don't run Kubernetes or Grafana/Prometheus

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: active
- function: monitoring, tracing, networking, security, data-visualization
- domain: monitoring, networking, security
- platform: self-hosted, go
- tags: ebpf, tcp, tls, grafana, prometheus, packet-sniffing, kubernetes-networking, observability, kubernetes, containers, devops, linux, docker

## Member repositories
- k8spacket/k8spacket (main) score 93

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:34.094544+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T06:47:15.741207+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/k8spacket/k8spacket (fetched 2026-08-28T04:03:34.094544+00:00, sha f954e4629a8b)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.