Guided PipeCD install mission in KubeStellar Console

[clubanderson]

We built a guided install mission for PipeCD inside KubeStellar Console, a standalone Kubernetes dashboard (unrelated to legacy kubestellar/kubestellar, kubeflex, or OCM — zero shared code).

Open the PipeCD install mission

What the mission does

The mission runs against your live cluster via kubeconfig. Each step:

1. Pre-flight — checks prerequisites (Kubernetes cluster with Helm installed)
2. Commands — shows the exact helm install / kubectl apply with flags explained. Copy-paste or run directly from the console
3. Validation — after each step, queries the cluster to verify success (pod phase, CRD registration, service endpoints)
4. Troubleshooting — on failure, reads pod logs, events, and resource status from your cluster and suggests fixes
5. Rollback — each step includes the corresponding helm uninstall / kubectl delete to undo

Works as read-only documentation too — no cluster connection required to browse.

Architecture

graph LR
    A["KubeStellar Console"] --> B["30+ Dashboards<br/>150+ Monitoring Cards"]
    A --> M["Marketplace<br/>(console-marketplace)"]
    A --> D["AI Mission Explorer"]
    D --> E["console-kb"]
    E --> F["186 Install Missions<br/>67 Solution Missions"]
    A --> C["AI Recommendations"]
    A --> H["kc-agent → Codex, Copilot,<br/>Claude CLI, Kube API, MCP"]
    click A href "https://console.kubestellar.io?utm_source=github&utm_medium=issue&utm_campaign=cncf_outreach&utm_term=pipecd" _blank
    click M href "https://github.com/kubestellar/console-marketplace?utm_source=github&utm_medium=issue&utm_campaign=cncf_outreach&utm_term=pipecd" _blank
    click E href "https://github.com/kubestellar/console-kb/blob/master/fixes/cncf-install/install-pipecd.json?utm_source=github&utm_medium=issue&utm_campaign=cncf_outreach&utm_term=pipecd" _blank
    click F href "https://console.kubestellar.io/missions/install-pipecd?utm_source=github&utm_medium=issue&utm_campaign=cncf_outreach&utm_term=pipecd" _blank
    click H href "https://github.com/kubestellar/console/tree/main/cmd/kc-agent?utm_source=github&utm_medium=issue&utm_campaign=cncf_outreach&utm_term=pipecd" _blank

Loading

• console-kb — YAML-based knowledge base defining each mission's steps, commands, and validation checks (PipeCD installer definition)
• console-marketplace — community-contributed monitoring cards per CNCF project (github.com/kubestellar/console-marketplace)
• kc-agent — bridges coding agents (Codex, Copilot, Claude CLI) to Kube API and MCP servers (kubestellar-ops, kubestellar-deploy) for automated cluster operations

Install

Local (connects to your current kubeconfig context):

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubestellar/console/main/start.sh | bash

With GitHub OAuth:

export GITHUB_CLIENT_ID=<your-client-id>
export GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET=<your-client-secret>
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubestellar/console/main/start.sh | bash

Deploy into a cluster:

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubestellar/console/main/deploy.sh | bash

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Mission definitions are open source — PRs to improve the PipeCD mission welcome at install-pipecd.json. Feel free to close if not relevant.

[zyzzmohit]

Hi @clubanderson thanks for sharing this. This looks like a really cool integration and a great way to help new users install PipeCD smoothly

As there are no actionable code changes required for the core pipe-cd/pipecd repository regarding this, should we perhaps consider transferring this to a GitHub Discussion, or go ahead and close this issue? (Pinging maintainers @Warashi / @khanhtc1202 for their thoughts on potentially linking this in the PipeCD docs)

[clubanderson]

@zyzzmohit Thanks — glad it resonated. Happy to go with whatever the maintainers prefer, whether that's a Discussion or a docs link.

If there's interest, we'd be glad to open a PR to the PipeCD docs or website linking to the guided install mission as a community resource. We just returned from KubeCon EU where attendees responded very positively to the console — especially Mission Control, which lets operators compose multi-project solutions (e.g., PipeCD + Prometheus + Grafana for deployment observability) and deploy across clusters in a phased rollout with dependency ordering and validation.

KubeStellar is on its journey toward CNCF incubation, and we're building out our ADOPTERS.md. If the PipeCD team is open to being listed, we'd handle PRs on both sides. @Warashi @khanhtc1202

[clubanderson]

@zyzzmohit — two follow-up PRs:

1. Docs PR: 📖 Add KubeStellar Console guided install reference #6631 — adds a reference to the guided install mission
2. Adopters PR: 🌱 Add PipeCD to ADOPTERS.md kubestellar/console#3990 — adds PipeCD to our adopters list (would love your +1 if you're open to it)

Happy to move the issue to a Discussion if you'd prefer — just let us know.

[clubanderson]

Update: The adopter PR on kubestellar/console was merged prematurely and has been reverted. A replacement PR has been created: kubestellar/console#4038 — it has a do-not-merge/hold label and will only be merged after receiving approval from a contributor on your project. Apologies for the confusion.