Guided SlimToolkit install mission in KubeStellar Console

[clubanderson]

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

Open the SlimToolkit install mission

What the mission does

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

1. Pre-flight — checks prerequisites (Docker, curl)
2. Commands — shows the exact install commands 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 uninstall commands 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=slimtoolkit" _blank
    click M href "https://github.com/kubestellar/console-marketplace?utm_source=github&utm_medium=issue&utm_campaign=cncf_outreach&utm_term=slimtoolkit" _blank
    click E href "https://github.com/kubestellar/console-kb/blob/master/fixes/cncf-install/install-slimtoolkit.json?utm_source=github&utm_medium=issue&utm_campaign=cncf_outreach&utm_term=slimtoolkit" _blank
    click F href "https://console.kubestellar.io/missions/install-slimtoolkit?utm_source=github&utm_medium=issue&utm_campaign=cncf_outreach&utm_term=slimtoolkit" _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=slimtoolkit" _blank

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• console-kb — YAML-based knowledge base defining each mission's steps, commands, and validation checks (SlimToolkit 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 SlimToolkit mission welcome at install-slimtoolkit.json. Feel free to close if not relevant.

[kcq]

@clubanderson , this is very cool! I highly recommend using the latest version for it and use the latest script for it too.

I need to better understand how it's used in the KubeStellar Console given it's Kubernetes related... There's support for Kubernetes as the container runtime when slimming is performed but depending on how it's deployed in KubeStellar it might need extra parameters.

[clubanderson]

Thanks @kcq! Updated the mission to reference mintoolkit/mint v1.41.8 and the latest install script — PR merged: kubestellar/console-kb#1536.

To clarify the Kubernetes usage — the mission installs the mint CLI locally (or in CI) and guides users through slimming images before pushing to a registry. The slimming itself runs on the local Docker daemon, not inside the cluster. The Kubernetes part is just deploying the already-slimmed images via kubectl set image. So no special K8s container runtime parameters needed.

If there's interest in a mission that runs Mint inside a K8s cluster (e.g., as a Job or in a CI pipeline with K8s as the container runtime), happy to add that as a separate mission — let us know what parameters would be needed.

[clubanderson]

@kcq — thanks again for the collaboration on the mission content. Two follow-up PRs:

1. README PR: 📖 Add guided install reference for KubeStellar Console mintoolkit/mint#183 — adds a reference to the guided install mission
2. Adopters PR: 🌱 Add SlimToolkit/Mint as adopter kubestellar/console#3988 — adds SlimToolkit/Mint to our adopters list (would love your +1 if you're open to it)

Let us know if anything needs adjusting.

[clubanderson]

Update: The adopter PR on kubestellar/console was merged prematurely and has been reverted. A replacement PR has been created: kubestellar/console#4036 — 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.