# vCluster

vCluster - Create fully functional virtual Kubernetes clusters - Each vcluster runs inside a namespace of the underlying k8s cluster. It's cheaper than creating separate full-blown clusters and it offers better multi-tenancy and isolation than regular namespaces.

Repository: https://github.com/loft-sh/vcluster
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/vcluster
Homepage: https://www.vcluster.com
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: kubernetes, vcluster, virtual-clusters, multi-tenancy, cloud-native, platform-engineering, helm, kubectl, k8s, k3s
Last push: 2026-08-26T19:06:38+00:00
Link (homepage): https://www.vcluster.com
Link (site_page): https://vcluster.com/docs
Link (site_page): https://www.vcluster.com/pricing
Link (site_page): https://www.vcluster.com/company/about
Link (site_page): https://www.vcluster.com/press-releases

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 94/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:39:23.370411+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 84, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 1973, "days_push": 7, "days_rel": 26, "gap_med": 4, "n_releases_24m": 84}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 11275, forks 596 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:46.639526+00:00)

## What it is
vCluster is an open-source tool that creates fully functional virtual Kubernetes clusters, each running inside a namespace of an underlying host cluster, providing stronger multi-tenancy and isolation than plain namespaces at lower cost than separate full clusters. It has evolved into a broader tenant cluster platform for AI infrastructure, supporting managed Kubernetes, Slurm, and inference clusters on shared nodes, private nodes, or bare metal via its vMetal machine API.

## Use cases
- run isolated virtual kubernetes clusters inside a shared host cluster
- give each team or customer their own kubernetes control plane without provisioning full clusters
- build a multi-tenant kubernetes platform for internal teams or external customers
- spin up ephemeral kubernetes clusters for local development and CI with Docker
- offer self-service managed kubernetes on GPU infrastructure for AI workloads
- achieve kubernetes multi-tenancy beyond namespaces with isolated API servers and RBAC
- turn bare metal GPU servers into a cloud platform with tenant clusters

## When to choose
- you need hard isolation between tenants on a shared kubernetes cluster
- creating separate full clusters per team or customer is too expensive or slow
- you are building an AI cloud, GPU cloud, or platform-engineering offering with self-service clusters
- you want a CNCF-certified kubernetes experience with your own API server, CRDs, and RBAC per tenant

## When to avoid
- simple namespaces with RBAC and resource quotas are sufficient isolation for trusted internal teams
- you have no kubernetes cluster or infrastructure to host virtual clusters on
- you need a fully managed hosted kubernetes service rather than self-operated tooling
- your workloads are tiny and the overhead of a virtual control plane is not justified

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: stable
- function: container-orchestration, cloud, deployment, microservices, self-hosted, developer-tools
- domain: cloud-computing, infrastructure-as-code, self-hosted, microservices
- platform: go, windows, cli, self-hosted, cloud
- tags: virtual-clusters, multi-tenancy, kubernetes, tenant-isolation, platform-engineering, ai-infrastructure, gpu-clouds, helm, k3s, bare-metal, containers, devops, docker, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- loft-sh/vcluster (main) score 94
- loft-sh/vind (mirror) score 54

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:46.639526+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 2026-08-29T17:15:59.757791+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/loft-sh/vcluster (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:46.639526+00:00, sha fb5c32b6324e)
  - homepage: https://www.vcluster.com (fetched 2026-08-29T08:15:15.300283+00:00, sha ddee83f9efce)
  - site_page: https://vcluster.com/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T08:15:15.305383+00:00, sha f9ad6501f8c7)
  - site_page: https://www.vcluster.com/company/about (fetched 2026-08-29T08:15:15.309057+00:00, sha ea55e8376360)
  - site_page: https://www.vcluster.com/docs/vcluster (fetched 2026-08-29T08:15:15.312794+00:00, sha f7ef2951013d)
  - site_page: https://www.vcluster.com/docs (fetched 2026-08-29T08:15:15.315956+00:00, sha df5faa23967c)
  - site_page: https://www.vcluster.com/releases (fetched 2026-08-29T08:15:15.303547+00:00, sha 5be2975d5ca6)
  - site_page: https://www.vcluster.com/pricing (fetched 2026-08-29T08:15:15.307181+00:00, sha 019dee463521)
  - site_page: https://www.vcluster.com/press-releases (fetched 2026-08-29T08:15:15.310658+00:00, sha 96907b0cefeb)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.