Caretta vs pwru

Caretta is a free, self-hosted Kubernetes tool from groundcover that creates a visual map of services and their network interactions. It uses eBPF for collection and is designed for Linux systems with kernel 4.16 or later and CO-RE support. The project describes a minimal footprint and says no cluster modifications are required. Installation is documented through a Helm chart, with a recommendation to use a new, unique namespace. The chart includes Grafana with a predefined Caretta dashboard and VictoriaMetrics for collecting and publishing metrics that Prometheus-compatible dashboards can consume. Both bundled services are enabled by default, as is a five-second metrics polling interval, while Helm values can disable either component. Persistent storage for VictoriaMetrics starts disabled but can be enabled. Grafana’s default setup enables anonymous mode and includes administrator credentials in the README. Caretta is self-hosted, Apache-2.0 licensed, and support is directed through Slack or repository issues.

pwru has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.