# Linkerd

Ultralight, security-first service mesh for Kubernetes. Main repo for Linkerd 2.x.

Repository: https://github.com/linkerd/linkerd2
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/linkerd
Homepage: https://linkerd.io
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: service-mesh, rust, golang, kubernetes, linkerd, cloud-native
Last push: 2026-08-26T13:58:31+00:00
Link (homepage): https://linkerd.io
Link (site_page): https://linkerd.io/docs
Link (site_page): https://linkerd.io/faq
Link (site_page): https://linkerd.io/docs/getting-started
Link (site_page): https://linkerd.io/docs/features/telemetry

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 87, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3194, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 8, "gap_med": 6, "n_releases_24m": 92}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 11480, forks 1376 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:48.277690+00:00)

## What it is
Linkerd is an ultralight, security-first service mesh for Kubernetes that adds mutual TLS, observability, and reliability features to cluster workloads with no code changes. It consists of a Go-based control plane and CLI plus a Rust-based data plane micro-proxy (linkerd2-proxy), and is a CNCF graduated project.

## Use cases
- add mutual TLS to kubernetes services without code changes
- get golden metrics and latency dashboards for microservices
- load balance gRPC traffic in kubernetes
- enforce zero-trust authorization policy between services
- add retries and reliability to service-to-service calls
- debug 502 errors in meshed applications
- choose a lighter service mesh than istio

## When to choose
- you run Kubernetes and want a simple, low-overhead service mesh
- you need zero-config mTLS and zero-trust policy
- you want gRPC/HTTP2 load balancing that Kubernetes doesn't provide
- memory-safety and regular security audits are requirements

## When to avoid
- you need multi-cluster or VM workloads outside Kubernetes
- you need Envoy's extensibility or a general-purpose proxy
- you want a mesh for non-Kubernetes environments

## Facets
- artifact type: infra-config
- maturity: active
- function: microservices, networking, security, monitoring, tracing, rate-limiting, cryptography, api-gateway
- domain: microservices, cloud-computing, networking, security, monitoring
- platform: cloud, self-hosted, go, rust
- tags: service-mesh, mtls, sidecar-proxy, cncf, kubernetes-networking, zero-trust, grpc, load-balancing, containers, devops, kubernetes, docker, linux

## Member repositories
- linkerd/linkerd2 (main) score 95
- linkerd/linkerd2-proxy (backend) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:48.277690+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 2026-08-29T17:15:33.642062+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/linkerd/linkerd2 (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:48.277690+00:00, sha 8633142dc398)
  - homepage: https://linkerd.io (fetched 2026-08-29T08:14:21.846215+00:00, sha 81f0270ad4b7)
  - site_page: https://linkerd.io/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T08:14:21.855624+00:00, sha e06faf41467f)
  - site_page: https://linkerd.io/docs/getting-started (fetched 2026-08-29T08:14:21.859369+00:00, sha 825ac4e925a9)
  - site_page: https://linkerd.io/docs/features/telemetry (fetched 2026-08-29T08:14:21.861547+00:00, sha e7e922b81cbb)
  - site_page: https://linkerd.io/docs/features/server-policy (fetched 2026-08-29T08:14:21.863404+00:00, sha 881f2eb1cc0a)
  - site_page: https://linkerd.io/docs/tasks/debugging-502s (fetched 2026-08-29T08:14:21.865361+00:00, sha aee666695640)
  - site_page: https://linkerd.io/docs/features/load-balancing (fetched 2026-08-29T08:14:21.866983+00:00, sha 4306fbf7eec8)
  - site_page: https://linkerd.io/faq (fetched 2026-08-29T08:14:21.857470+00:00, sha 338fb9facc5a)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.