Konfidence is pre-release software. Concepts and APIs are unstable and subject to change.
pre-alpha

Glossary ​

The glossary defines the Konfidence terms used in this documentation. Each entry lists the pages that use the term.

Concepts describe the delivery model ​

Artifact ​

An artifact is a deployable part of your application, such as a microservice. Your CI pipeline packages it as an Open Component Model (OCM) component version.

The artifact contains a manifest and a reference to the build result, such as a container image. It can also include binary resources directly. The manifest's type field names the deployment class the artifact requires. The allowReuse field controls whether several vector deployments share one running instance.

Continuous integration (CI) pipelines publish artifacts to an OCM-compliant repository, such as an Open Container Initiative (OCI) registry.

Pages that use this term

Artifact alias ​

An artifact alias is a mutable tag, such as main, that points to one version of an artifact. A VectorTemplate can reference an artifact by alias. During assembly, Konfidence resolves the alias and records the concrete version in the vector. An alias does not replace the semantic version of the artifact.

Pages that use this term

Delivery flow ​

The delivery flow is the path from published artifacts to the vector each stage selects. It has four phases: build, assemble, assign, and promote. The assign phase is unrelated to the VectorAssignment resource. Deployment in a landscape starts after the delivery flow ends.

Pages that use this term

Deployer ​

A deployer is a platform-specific controller that deploys artifacts of the deployment classes it provides. It reconciles ArtifactDeployment resources and turns their deployable content into running workloads.

The current release provides one deployer for Kubernetes, installed with the landscape orchestrator. It deploys artifacts through Flux.

Pages that use this term

Deployment class ​

A deployment class is a named capability for deploying one kind of artifact, such as Helm or Kustomize. Each class is represented by a cluster-scoped DeploymentClass resource that names the controller responsible for it. The deployer's Helm chart installs these resources.

By convention, the class name follows the pattern <class-name>.<vendor-domain>, for example helm.konfidence.cloud. The type field of the artifact manifest names the class the artifact requires.

Pages that use this term

Deployment result ​

A deployment result is a value that a deployer produces while it deploys an artifact, such as a service endpoint. The Kubernetes deployer reports Services annotated with konfidence.cloud/deployment-result. Konfidence passes deployment results to the landscape as part of vector data.

Pages that use this term

Deployment target ​

A deployment target makes one deployment class available in one landscape. It provides the connection that the responsible deployer uses: either the local cluster or a Secret with a kubeconfig. A landscape has one deployment target per deployment class. The DeploymentTarget resource lives in the landscape namespace.

Pages that use this term

Feature flag ​

A feature flag is a named value in the vector configuration that toggles behavior in your application. Konfidence scopes feature flags to a vector and does not provide targeting, variants, or rules. Changing a flag creates a new vector version. Applications read flags through the vector data service.

Pages that use this term

Landscape ​

A landscape is an operational boundary within a project. It groups stages, deployment targets, credentials, and deployment resources that share ownership, security, compliance, or reliability requirements.

Konfidence creates a dedicated Kubernetes namespace for each landscape, kden-l-<landscape-name>-<hash> by default. Deployment targets connect the landscape to the infrastructure where deployments run.

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Landscape orchestrator ​

The landscape orchestrator executes deployments in a landscape. It runs in the same cluster as Konfidence. The Kubernetes landscape orchestrator has its own Helm chart and installs the Kubernetes deployer. It runs migration tasks as Kubernetes Job resources and activates vectors through Gateway API HTTPRoute resources. It also passes vector data to the landscape as ConfigMap resources.

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Project ​

A project provides the organizational boundary for Konfidence resources. The API server grants the subjects in its role bindings access to the project. Each project owns a dedicated namespace, kden-p-<project-name> by default. That namespace holds the project's landscapes, vector templates, and promotion configurations.

Pages that use this term

Promotion ​

A promotion selects a concrete, immutable vector for a target stage by updating the stage's desired vector. It does not rebuild, copy, or change the vector.

A VectorPromotionConfig defines a promotion flow. Konfidence creates a VectorPromotion when the source vector differs from the vector selected by the target stage. A promotion from a stage waits for approval before it runs.

Pages that use this term

Stage ​

A stage is a logical checkpoint in the delivery flow, such as development, integration, or production. It selects at most one desired vector at a time. Stage names describe the purpose of the checkpoint, not the infrastructure behind it.

Each stage belongs to a landscape and uses the deployment targets configured there. Stages in one landscape share an artifact deployment when the artifact allows reuse and their artifact versions match. The Stage custom resource holds the selected vector.

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Vector ​

A vector is a complete, immutable version of your application. It is an OCM component version that references a fixed set of artifacts and an optional vector configuration.

Any change to an artifact reference or to the configuration creates a new vector. Stages select vectors, and promotions update those selections.

Pages that use this term

Vector configuration ​

Vector configuration is data that you add to a vector: feature flags and free-form authored configuration. Konfidence imposes no schema on authored configuration. Changing the configuration creates a new vector. Konfidence stores the configuration as the OCM resource cloud-konfidence-vector-config on the vector.

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Vector data ​

Vector data is runtime data that belongs to one vector deployment. It contains the vector configuration and the deployment results of the vector's artifacts. Applications read vector data by vector ID. The vector ID is the name of the vector deployment. During activation, Konfidence sends this ID in the X-Vector-ID request header. Vector data is available before the vector is activated.

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Vector data service ​

The vector data service is a runtime component that serves vector data to workloads in a Kubernetes landscape. It reads vector data from ConfigMap resources and provides the OpenFeature Remote Evaluation Protocol (OFREP) API. An administrator installs it in each landscape namespace.

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Custom resources ​

Konfidence represents its concepts as Kubernetes custom resources in the API group konfidence.cloud, version v1alpha1. The CRD reference lists all fields.

ArtifactDeployment ​

An ArtifactDeployment is a custom resource that describes the deployment of one artifact in a landscape. A deployer reconciles it according to the deployment class in the artifact manifest. Vector deployments in one landscape share an ArtifactDeployment if the artifact sets allowReuse and their artifact versions match.

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StageVersion ​

A StageVersion is a custom resource that captures one immutable rollout of a stage. It records the selected vector and the stage generation. Every change to the stage spec creates a new stage version. The previous stage version stays active until activation of the new one succeeds. The stage status names the active stage version.

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StageVersionUsage ​

A StageVersionUsage is a custom resource that marks a StageVersion as in use and can include the reason. It references the StageVersion by name or by label selector. Konfidence keeps the resources of a StageVersion while a StageVersionUsage references it.

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VectorActivation ​

A VectorActivation is a custom resource that starts the activation of a vector for a stage version. Activation runs the registered activation tasks. Then Konfidence marks the stage version as active. The Kubernetes deployer's activation task creates an HTTPRoute that tags requests with the vector ID.

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VectorAssignment ​

A VectorAssignment is a custom resource that binds one ArtifactDeployment to one VectorDeployment. One artifact deployment can serve several vectors, so vectors and artifact deployments form a many-to-many relationship. Each VectorAssignment represents one binding in that relationship.

The vector deployment controller manages VectorAssignment resources. Deployers reconcile them and report readiness.

Pages that use this term

VectorDeployment ​

A VectorDeployment is a custom resource that deploys all artifacts of one vector in a landscape. It references the vector as an OCM component version in an OCI registry. A change to the vector creates a new VectorDeployment instead of updating the existing one.

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VectorPromotion ​

A VectorPromotion is a custom resource that runs a promotion flow once. It pins the concrete vector when it is created and records the status of the promotion. By default, Konfidence keeps the last 10 completed promotions for each VectorPromotionConfig.

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VectorPromotionConfig ​

A VectorPromotionConfig is a custom resource that defines a promotion flow from a source to a target stage. The source is a VectorTemplate or another stage. Konfidence creates a VectorPromotion when the source vector differs from the vector selected by the target stage. Promotions from a stage source require approval by default.

Pages that use this term

VectorTemplate ​

A VectorTemplate is a custom resource that defines how Konfidence assembles a vector. It lists OCM component references, usually with an artifact alias, and the upload target for the assembled vector. Konfidence resolves each reference during every reconciliation. It uploads a new vector when the result changes.

Pages that use this term
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