keleustes

README

Skaphos Keleustes

Skaphos Keleustes is an open-source GitOps delivery control plane for Kubernetes platforms.

Keleustes combines application inventory, topology-aware deployment, GitOps reconciliation, promotion workflows, policy gates, and audit history into a single Kubernetes-native system.

Keleustes is designed for platform teams running many applications across many clusters, regions, environments, and failure domains.

Status. Keleustes is in the scaffold stage. The repository pins the module layout, CRD surface, controller entrypoints, and tooling described in the design proposal. Reconciliation engines (Source, Sync, Promotion, Git Mutation, Policy, Health, Diff) arrive across MVP 0 → MVP 4 as described below.

What Keleustes replaces

• Argo CD application sync and visibility
• Kargo-style promotion orchestration
• Custom CI scripts for environment promotion
• Spreadsheet-driven deployment tracking
• Ad hoc Git mutation bots

What Keleustes does not replace

• Git
• Kubernetes
• Helm
• Kustomize
• OCI registries
• CI systems
• Observability stacks
• Admission controllers

Design principles

1. Git is the durable desired-state boundary.
2. Promotion is a first-class object.
3. Topology is part of deployment state.
4. Reconciliation must be explainable.
5. The UI must show intent, not just objects.
6. Every mutation must be auditable.
7. The system must support read-only degradation.
8. Application count should not be a pricing weapon.
9. Kubernetes-native does not mean Kubernetes-only UX.
10. Operators must be able to recover with Git and CLI.

Naming

Keleustes (Greek κελευστής) was the officer on a trireme who set the stroke and cadence for the rowers — coordinating movement, pacing, and direction through constrained passage. The metaphor maps to GitOps delivery: the system directs the cadence of release movement, it does not power the change itself. The name also reinforces the Skaphos Greek-nautical register.

Pronunciation: kuh-LOO-stees (anglicized); Greek keh-loo-STEES.

The Latin transliteration Celeustes is held as a fallback. See docs/NAMING.md for the full collision review.

Repository layout

api/v1alpha1/          # CRD type definitions (Application, Source, Release, …)
cmd/manager/           # Keleustes controller-manager binary
cmd/keleustesctl/      # keleustesctl operator CLI
internal/cli/          # cobra command tree for keleustesctl
internal/controller/   # Reconciler implementations
config/                # Kustomize manifests: CRDs, RBAC, manager, samples
docs/                  # Architecture/decision docs (ADRs live under docs/adr/)
hack/                  # Generated-code boilerplate header
tools/                 # Pinned developer tooling (Task, controller-gen, …)
ui/                    # Placeholder for the React/TypeScript UI (PROPOSAL §16)

Core CRDs (group keleustes.skaphos.io)

Kind	Purpose
Application	Central delivery abstraction: ownership, manifests, topology, status.
Source	Stream of deployable inputs (container images, Git, Helm, OCI).
Release	Pinned collection of artifacts for an Application.
Environment	Ordered lifecycle boundary (dev, test, qa, prod).
Cell	Failure domain or operational grouping inside an Environment.
DeploymentTarget	Concrete cluster where an Application can run.
Deployment	Live-state record of an Application on a DeploymentTarget.
Promotion	Requested movement of a Release into one or more targets.
PromotionPolicy	Gate set required by a Promotion.
SyncPlan	Binding from an Application to DeploymentTargets.
SyncRun	Single reconciliation attempt by the Sync Engine.
HealthCheck	Health evaluation for an Application on a target.
FreezeWindow	Window during which promotions to a scope are blocked.
Approval	Approver decision on a Promotion.

MVP roadmap

• MVP 0 — Read-only replacement UI. Application/topology registry, Git desired-state read, cluster live-state read, matrix, health, deployed version, resource tree.
• MVP 1 — Keleustes-managed sync for kustomize/helm/raw manifest deployments.
• MVP 2 — Releases and promotions, Git mutation, approval gates, basic policy.
• MVP 3 — Enterprise topology: cells, regions, waves, freeze windows, change-ticket integration.
• MVP 4 — Policy and audit acceptable for regulated environments.

Building

Tooling is pinned in tools/ and orchestrated through Task. Bootstrap and run:

cd tools && go mod tidy   # one-time
go -C tools tool task --list
go -C tools tool task ci  # full local CI (lint, test, staticcheck, vuln, build)

A non-exhaustive task surface:

go -C tools tool task manifests        # regenerate CRDs + RBAC
go -C tools tool task generate         # regenerate deepcopy implementations
go -C tools tool task build            # build cmd/manager
go -C tools tool task build-ctl        # build cmd/keleustesctl
go -C tools tool task run              # run the manager against current kubeconfig
go -C tools tool task install          # install CRDs into the current cluster
go -C tools tool task deploy           # deploy the manager into the current cluster

Public positioning

Existing GitOps tools split reconciliation, promotion, topology, and visibility across separate products. Keleustes provides a unified open-source control plane for GitOps delivery without requiring organizations to adopt a commercial SaaS control layer.

License

MIT. See LICENSE and REUSE.toml.

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Skaphos is a project of Rillan AI LLC, a Missouri limited liability company. © 2026 Rillan AI LLC. Released under the MIT License.