# kubevirt/kubevirt

Kubernetes Virtualization API and runtime in order to define and manage virtual machines.

Repository: https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/kubevirt
Homepage: https://kubevirt.io
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: kubernetes, libvirt, virtualization, vms, hacktoberfest
Last push: 2026-08-26T21:37:03+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 98/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 95, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3547, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 34, "gap_med": 16, "n_releases_24m": 24}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7030, forks 1764 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:54.974040+00:00)

## What it is
KubeVirt is a virtual machine management add-on for Kubernetes that extends the Kubernetes API with virtualization resource types (like the VM custom resource) via CRDs. It runs controllers and agents on an existing cluster to declaratively create, schedule, launch, stop, and delete virtual machines alongside container workloads.

## Use cases
- run virtual machines on a kubernetes cluster
- manage vms and containers on one platform
- migrate legacy vm workloads to kubernetes
- declaratively create and schedule vms with kubectl
- live migrate vms in a kubernetes cluster
- attach gpus and host devices to kubernetes-managed vms
- snapshot and backup kubernetes-managed virtual machines

## When to choose
- your team has adopted Kubernetes but still has VM-based workloads that cannot be containerized
- you want a unified API to manage containers and VMs together
- you need VM live migration, snapshots, or GPU passthrough on Kubernetes
- you want to gradually decompose virtualized applications into microservices

## When to avoid
- you only need containers with no VM workloads
- your hosts are macOS or Windows without Linux/KVM support
- you need a standalone hypervisor outside Kubernetes
- you cannot run privileged agents or kernel virtualization on your nodes

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: stable
- function: container-orchestration, deployment, api-framework
- domain: cloud-computing, infrastructure-as-code
- platform: go, cloud, self-hosted
- tags: kubevirt, libvirt, kvm, virtual-machines, crd, operator, vm-management, live-migration, virtualization, containers, devops, linux, kubernetes, docker

## Member repositories
- kubevirt/kubevirt (main) score 98

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:54.974040+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 2026-08-29T17:40:35.400152+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:54.974040+00:00, sha a96d7c4cd6f2)
  - homepage: https://kubevirt.io (fetched 2026-08-29T08:36:30.937975+00:00, sha 68d8ed0cd65e)
  - site_page: https://kubevirt.io/user-guide (fetched 2026-08-29T08:36:30.955073+00:00, sha 542508e076b2)
  - site_page: https://kubevirt.io/quickstart_minikube (fetched 2026-08-29T08:36:31.002508+00:00, sha 4f07990b0929)
  - site_page: https://kubevirt.io/quickstart_kind (fetched 2026-08-29T08:36:31.065896+00:00, sha 8b73b3503c2b)
  - site_page: https://kubevirt.io/quickstart_cloud (fetched 2026-08-29T08:36:31.389544+00:00, sha 19c1e41a3ed1)
  - site_page: https://kubevirt.io/2026/Beta-Features-On-By-Default-In-v1-9.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:36:31.542400+00:00, sha 28180c22385f)
  - site_page: https://kubevirt.io/2026/changelog-v1.9.0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:36:31.506284+00:00, sha 454e174c09cd)
  - site_page: https://kubevirt.io/2026/changelog-v1.8.0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:36:31.544641+00:00, sha c9a89b85917f)
  - site_page: https://kubevirt.io/2025/changelog-v1.7.0.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:36:31.546598+00:00, sha 02e236d508a2)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.