k3s-io/kine

Health v2 · maintenance only

Adoption not part of the score

2396 stars · 308 forks observed · 2026-08-28

What it is AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, 2026-08-30, confidence not recorded

Kine is an etcd shim that translates the etcd API into calls against SQLite, Postgres, MySQL/MariaDB, or NATS, letting Kubernetes use those backends instead of etcd. It can run standalone so any Kubernetes distribution, not just K3s, can use alternative data stores.

Use cases

• run kubernetes without etcd using postgres as the backing store
• use mysql or mariadb as the kubernetes datastore
• use sqlite for lightweight single-node kubernetes clusters
• replace etcd in an existing k8s cluster with a sql database
• back kubernetes state with nats

When to choose

• you already operate mysql, postgres, or sqlite infrastructure and want to reuse it for kubernetes
• you run k3s or another lightweight cluster where etcd is overkill
• you need simpler backup and restore semantics than etcd provides

When to avoid

• you need the full etcd API for general-purpose use, since kine implements only a subset
• you run large clusters where etcd's performance and ecosystem tooling are proven
• you rely on etcd-specific features like full watch semantics or etcdctl

Facets

library · maturity active

database database-driver middleware databases infrastructure-as-code developer-tools go cross-platform etcd-shim kubernetes k3s sqlite postgres mysql nats containers linux

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markdown · JSON · MCP: product_card(name="k3s-io/kine")