# cilium/tetragon

eBPF-based Security Observability and Runtime Enforcement

Repository: https://github.com/cilium/tetragon
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/tetragon
Homepage: https://tetragon.io
Language: C
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: bpf, ebpf, kernel, kubernetes, security
Last push: 2026-08-26T21:07:38+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 95/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 87, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1624, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 8, "gap_med": 86, "n_releases_24m": 10}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 4955, forks 594 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:03.807873+00:00)

## What it is
Tetragon is an eBPF-based security observability and runtime enforcement tool from the Cilium project. It monitors process execution, syscalls, file access, and network activity in real time at the kernel level, with Kubernetes-aware policies for workload-specific detection and enforcement.

## Use cases
- monitor process execution and syscalls in kubernetes clusters
- detect and block binaries executed from /tmp
- file integrity monitoring for sensitive files
- track which processes make network connections
- monitor linux capability and privilege changes
- audit kernel module loading and eBPF subsystem activity
- enforce security policies at kernel level with low overhead

## When to choose
- you need real-time, low-overhead security observability on Linux or Kubernetes
- you want runtime enforcement (blocking) of malicious activity at the kernel level
- you need security events correlated with Kubernetes identities like pods and namespaces

## When to avoid
- your hosts don't run Linux or lack eBPF support (older kernels)
- you only need simple log aggregation or metrics without kernel-level tracing
- you need a host-based agent for non-Linux platforms like Windows or macOS

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: monitoring, security, alerting, logging, tracing
- domain: security, monitoring, cloud-computing, self-hosted
- platform: self-hosted, cloud
- tags: ebpf, runtime-enforcement, kubernetes-security, observability, cncf, file-integrity-monitoring, syscall-tracing, runtime-security, containers, devops, linux, kubernetes, docker

## Member repositories
- cilium/tetragon (main) score 95

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:03.807873+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 2026-08-29T18:17:50.225711+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/cilium/tetragon (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:03.807873+00:00, sha 1f8bc97149cd)
  - homepage: https://tetragon.io (fetched 2026-08-29T08:59:21.094880+00:00, sha 4b712e7c048e)
  - site_page: https://tetragon.io/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T08:59:21.104623+00:00, sha 045b31c8b0f4)
  - site_page: https://tetragon.io/docs/getting-started (fetched 2026-08-29T08:59:21.106591+00:00, sha 2b3b465c7629)
  - site_page: https://tetragon.io/features/capabilities-monitoring (fetched 2026-08-29T08:59:21.108362+00:00, sha b9114883769d)
  - site_page: https://tetragon.io/features/execution-monitoring (fetched 2026-08-29T08:59:21.110012+00:00, sha d6ad8b2ef3ef)
  - site_page: https://tetragon.io/features/file-integrity-monitoring (fetched 2026-08-29T08:59:21.111671+00:00, sha ba60038e65c8)
  - site_page: https://tetragon.io/features/kubernetes-identity-aware-policies (fetched 2026-08-29T08:59:21.113266+00:00, sha cf8c115ce0bb)
  - site_page: https://tetragon.io/features/network-observability (fetched 2026-08-29T08:59:21.115096+00:00, sha 86b023f2c209)
  - site_page: https://tetragon.io/features/operating-system-integrity (fetched 2026-08-29T08:59:21.116800+00:00, sha 75746855fc39)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.