Chris Farhood
fe3b4b90d7
Plugin existed on GitHub but was missing from the skill inventory, causing it to be omitted from UAT gap analysis. Count updated from 6 to 7. Co-Authored-By: Paperclip <noreply@paperclip.ing>
120 lines
5.7 KiB
Markdown
120 lines
5.7 KiB
Markdown
---
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name: product-context
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description: >
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Product context for Privileged Escalation. Covers current plugin portfolio,
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target users, competitive landscape, plugin evaluation framework, and feature
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spec template.
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---
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# Product Context
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Load this section when triaging feature requests, evaluating new plugin proposals, or writing specs.
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## Current plugin portfolio
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| Plugin | Repo | What it does | Status |
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| ------------------ | -------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- | ------ |
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| **Polaris** | `headlamp-polaris-plugin` | Kubernetes best practice validation and scoring | Active |
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| **Kube-VIP** | `headlamp-kube-vip-plugin` | Kube-VIP load balancer management | Active |
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| **Rook/Ceph** | `headlamp-rook-plugin` | Rook-Ceph storage cluster monitoring | Active |
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| **Sealed Secrets** | `headlamp-sealed-secrets-plugin` | Bitnami Sealed Secrets management | Active |
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| **Intel GPU** | `headlamp-intel-gpu-plugin` | Intel GPU device plugin monitoring | Active |
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| **TrueNAS CSI** | `headlamp-tns-csi-plugin` | TrueNAS SCALE CSI driver monitoring | Active |
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| **Argo CD** | `headlamp-argocd-plugin` | Argo CD application delivery management | Active |
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All plugins distributed via **ArtifactHub**, installed through Headlamp's native plugin installer only.
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## Target users
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**Primary: The Platform Engineer**
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* Manages 1-50 Kubernetes clusters, mid-size company (100-2000 employees)
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* Pain point: "I have 15 tools open to monitor my clusters. I want one dashboard that shows me everything."
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* Very high tech comfort. Knows Kubernetes deeply. Will read your source code.
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* Will adopt a plugin in 5 minutes if it solves a real problem. Will drop it in 5 seconds if it's buggy or doesn't add value over `kubectl`.
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**Secondary: The DevOps Lead / SRE Manager**
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* Manages a platform team, responsible for cluster health and reliability.
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* Wants plugins that visualize what matters and surface problems proactively — NOT another monitoring tool.
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**Anti-persona: The Application Developer**
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App developers care about their deployments, not the cluster. Features like "show me my pod logs" are already in Headlamp core. Don't build for them.
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## Scope
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**In scope**
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* Headlamp plugins that visualize and manage specific Kubernetes ecosystem tools
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* Plugins that surface operational insights not available in Headlamp core
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* Plugins for CNCF projects and widely-adopted K8s ecosystem tools
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* ArtifactHub packaging and distribution
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**Explicitly out of scope**
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* Plugins that duplicate Headlamp core functionality
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* Non-Kubernetes tools
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* Hosted/SaaS versions of plugins
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* Helm-based or sidecar-based plugin installation
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* Custom Headlamp forks
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* Monitoring/alerting backends (we visualize, we don't collect metrics)
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* Multi-cluster management
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* CLI tools
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## Competitive landscape
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| Competitor | Where PRI differs |
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| -------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| **Headlamp core** | We extend it, not compete. If a feature belongs in core, contribute upstream. |
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| **Lens** | Heavy, desktop-only, commercial. We make web-based, open source Headlamp better. |
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| **k9s** | Different modality (TUI vs web). Not competitive. |
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| **Komodor / Kubecost / Robusta** | Standalone products. Our plugins bring their insights INTO Headlamp. Complementary. |
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PRI's moat: leading third-party Headlamp plugin developer. Plugins are free, open source, on ArtifactHub.
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## Plugin evaluation framework
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1. **Is there a widely-adopted K8s ecosystem tool that lacks Headlamp visibility?**
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* Fewer than 1,000 GitHub stars or in alpha → too early. Close with "revisit when more mature."
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* Already has a Headlamp plugin → duplicate. Close.
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2. **Does the plugin add value over `kubectl` + the tool's own CLI/UI?**
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* "It shows the same thing but in Headlamp" → weak value prop. Good plugins correlate data, surface problems proactively, simplify complex operations.
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3. **Can Gandalf build and maintain it?**
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* One engineer can maintain ~6-8 plugins at current complexity. We're at 7 now. New plugins mean either dropping an existing one or hiring.
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4. **Is it installable via ArtifactHub without extras?**
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* Plugin requires CRDs/RBAC/cluster resources installed separately → degraded experience.
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* Unacceptable: plugin requires its own operator or sidecar.
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**Priority tiers**
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* **P0**: Bugs in existing plugins that break functionality or produce incorrect data
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* **P1**: Enhancements to existing plugins users are requesting
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* **P2**: New plugins for high-value K8s tools with clear user demand
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* **P3**: Speculative plugins, cross-plugin features, UX experiments
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## Feature spec template
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```markdown
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## Problem
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What operational visibility or capability is missing? Who needs it? What do they do today instead?
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## Proposed Solution
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What should the plugin show or enable that isn't available today?
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## Acceptance Criteria
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- [ ] Plugin displays...
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- [ ] User can...
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- [ ] Data is accurate when compared to `kubectl` / native CLI output
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- [ ] Works with [tool name] version X.Y+
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- [ ] Installable via ArtifactHub without additional cluster-level setup
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- [ ] Has unit tests covering core display logic
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## Out of Scope for This Issue
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## Dependencies
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What must exist in the cluster for this plugin to work? (CRDs, operators, RBAC)
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## Priority
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P0/P1/P2/P3 with one-sentence justification.
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```
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