KWOK

Spec sheet

Purpose

KWOK simulates Kubernetes nodes, pods, and other API resources so users can set up clusters of thousands of nodes in seconds.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Platforms

The runtime support matrix covers Linux, macOS (Darwin), and Windows on amd64 and arm64, with support varying by runtime and architecture.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Integrations

The documentation includes integration examples for Argo, Istio, Kueue, Linkerd, Prometheus, Metrics Server, and Ray.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Community support

Users can reach the maintainers through GitHub issues and discussions or the Kubernetes #kwok and #kwok-dev Slack channels.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Configuration

Users can configure node types, labels, taints, capacities, conditions, and pod behaviors to test scenarios and edge cases.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Installation

The project documents installation through Homebrew, WinGet, Go, and downloadable binaries.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Known issue

With AWS, GCP, or Azure cloud-provider integrations, nodes may be unexpectedly deleted if they lack provider IDs; the documentation recommends assigning a dummy providerID.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Kubernetes compatibility

KWOK works with Kubernetes API-compliant tools and clients, including kubectl, Helm, and Kui.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Limitation

KWOK simulates pods rather than running them, so a pod in a KWOK cluster does not perform real workload behavior such as serving an HTTP response.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Metrics

KWOK documents enabling Prometheus for a cluster and using Prometheus as a Grafana data source.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Performance

The project says KWOK can create 20 nodes or pods per second.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Scale

The project says KWOK can reliably maintain 1,000 nodes and 100,000 pods.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Security and license

The source repository identifies the project as Apache-2.0 licensed and links to a security policy.Read 8 Oct 2026 · github.com

Tools

The project provides `kwok` to simulate resource lifecycles and `kwokctl` to create and manage clusters.Read 8 Oct 2026 · kwok.sigs.k8s.io

Plans and prices

Every KWOK plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• Local Kubernetes Tools#18 of 237.7