Capacitor Next is a client-side Kubernetes client that uses your kubeconfig to access your clusters.
- Like k9s, but in the browser.
- Like the ArgoCD UI, just lighter.
With
- Kubernetes resource discovery
- Keyboard navigation
- Built-in and custom views
- Helm history
- Helm values and manifest diffing
- Flux resource tree
- Flux Kustomization diffing between cluster and git state
Resource tree
Flux Kustomization diffing between cluster and git state
Download
curl -L "https://github.com/gimlet-io/capacitor/releases/download/capacitor-next/next-$(uname)-$(uname -m)" -o next
chmod +x next
Then run
$ ./next --port 3333
2025/07/05 08:29:30 Creating Kubernetes client...
2025/07/05 08:29:30 Using kubeconfig context: k3d-test
2025/07/05 08:29:30 Cluster: k3d-test, Namespace: kube-system, User: admin@k3d-test
2025/07/05 08:29:30 Using embedded certificate authority data from kubeconfig
2025/07/05 08:29:30 Default namespace from context: kube-system
...
FluxCD is an amazing backend for all things gitops.
It is a shame that ArgoCD gained so much traction mostly because developers appreciate the UI. Rolling out a read-only ArgoCD UI made Argo the de-facto kubernetes dashboard, where people look at logs and various kubernetes resources.
Capacitor's goal is to level the field: providing a UI option for Flux users that matches or exceeds the level of ArgoCD.
Capacitor Next is a rewrite and rethink of the original Capacitor release.
The development is happening on the main branch and releases are pushed frequently under this Github release.
| Capacitor Next | Capacitor |
|---|---|
| client-side | server-side |
| multi-cluster | single cluster |
| ❌ | |
| Supports all k8s resources and versions | ❌ |
| Kustomization Resource Tree | ❌ |
| Helm values and manifest diffing | ❌ |
| Kustomization diffing between cluster and git | ❌ |
Please push ✨
💡 Tip: Capacitor was the first attempt to write a ui for Capacitor. It was running in the cluster and users accessed it on a URL. Not under development anymore. Scroll to the top and use Capacitor Next.
💡 Tip: Capacitor requires Flux v2.0.0.
Deploy the latest Capacitor release in the flux-system namespace
by adding the following manifests to your Flux repository:
---
apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1beta2
kind: OCIRepository
metadata:
name: capacitor
namespace: flux-system
spec:
interval: 12h
url: oci://ghcr.io/gimlet-io/capacitor-manifests
ref:
semver: ">=0.1.0"
---
apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: Kustomization
metadata:
name: capacitor
namespace: flux-system
spec:
targetNamespace: flux-system
interval: 1h
retryInterval: 2m
timeout: 5m
wait: true
prune: true
path: "./"
sourceRef:
kind: OCIRepository
name: capacitorNote that Flux will check for Capacitor releases every 12 hours and will automatically deploy the new version if it is available.
Access Capacitor UI with port-forwarding:
kubectl -n flux-system port-forward svc/capacitor 9000:9000This feature requires Flux v2.2.0.
---
apiVersion: source.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1beta2
kind: OCIRepository
metadata:
name: capacitor
namespace: flux-system
spec:
interval: 12h
url: oci://ghcr.io/gimlet-io/capacitor-manifests
ref:
semver: ">=0.1.0"
+ verify:
+ provider: cosign
+ matchOIDCIdentity:
+ - issuer: "https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com"
+ subject: "^https://github.com/gimlet-io/capacitor.*$"
---
apiVersion: kustomize.toolkit.fluxcd.io/v1
kind: Kustomization
metadata:
name: capacitor
namespace: flux-system
spec:
targetNamespace: flux-system
interval: 1h
retryInterval: 2m
timeout: 5m
wait: true
prune: true
path: "./"
sourceRef:
kind: OCIRepository
name: capacitorkubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gimlet-io/capacitor/refs/tags/capacitor-v0.4.8/deploy/k8s/rbac.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gimlet-io/capacitor/refs/tags/capacitor-v0.4.8/deploy/k8s/manifest.yaml
kubectl port-forward svc/capacitor -n flux-system 9000:9000
For adding an Ingress, a Kubernetes NetworkPolicy is required.
An example would be:
---
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: NetworkPolicy
metadata:
name: capacitor-ingress
namespace: flux-system
spec:
policyTypes:
- Ingress
ingress:
- from:
- namespaceSelector: {}
podSelector:
matchLabels:
app.kubernetes.io/instance: capacitor
---
apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
name: capacitor-ingress
namespace: flux-system
spec:
rules:
- host: gitops.example.com
http:
paths:
- pathType: Prefix
path: /
backend:
service:
name: capacitor
port:
number: 9000
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gimlet-io/capacitor/main/deploy/k8s/rbac.yaml
helm repo add onechart https://chart.onechart.dev
helm upgrade -i capacitor -n flux-system onechart/onechart -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gimlet-io/capacitor/main/deploy/helm/onechart-helm-values.yaml
kubectl port-forward svc/capacitor -n flux-system 9000:9000
The vision: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaDRRDvsRAs
Capacitor is built currently by Gimlet.io founder Laszlo Fogas on live streams:
- 1730CET, 16th October 2023 - Capacitor launch, Flux CRD backend
- 1700CET, 20th October 2023 - Rudimentary data model, bundling a React frontend
- 1730CET, 23rd October 2023 - Rendering Flux state
- 1700CET, 6th November 2023 - Product vision, Rendering Kustomizations, React event handlers
- 1700CET, 12th January 2024 - Where are we with Capacitor? Launch plans
- 6th February 2024 - OCIRepository support
Capacitor wants to be more than a tool that displays Flux's CRDs in tables. Capacitor wants to provide contextualized information for developers to best operate their applications.
Kustomizations:
Error Handling:
HelmReleases:
Service Logs: