Support Matrix

KSail supports multiple Kubernetes distributions, providers, and components. This matrix shows compatibility and support status.

Distribution × Provider Matrix

Distribution	Docker	Hetzner	Omni
Vanilla (Kind)	✅	❌	❌
K3s (K3d)	✅	❌	❌
Talos	✅	✅	✅
VCluster (Vind)	✅	❌	❌

Notes:

• Docker provider requires Docker Desktop or Docker Engine installed locally
• Hetzner provider requires HCLOUD_TOKEN environment variable and Talos ISO in your account
• Omni provider requires a Sidero Omni account, an OMNI_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_KEY environment variable, and an Omni API endpoint configured via spec.cluster.omni.endpoint in your KSail configuration — see Omni Provider for setup details
• VCluster uses the Vind Docker driver to run the control plane and optional worker nodes directly as Docker containers

Component × Distribution Matrix

Component	Vanilla	K3s	Talos	VCluster
CNI
Cilium	✅	✅	✅	N/A¹
Calico	✅	✅	✅	N/A¹
CSI
Local Path Provisioner	✅	Built-in	✅ (Docker)	N/A²
Hetzner CSI Driver	❌	❌	✅ (Hetzner)	❌
LoadBalancer
LoadBalancer Support	✅	Built-in	✅ (Docker/Hetzner)	N/A³
Cloud Provider KIND	✅	❌	❌	❌
MetalLB	❌	❌	✅ (Docker)	❌
Hetzner CCM	❌	❌	✅ (Hetzner)	❌
GitOps
Flux	✅	✅	✅	✅
ArgoCD	✅	✅	✅	✅
Observability
Metrics Server	✅	Built-in	✅	N/A⁴
Security
cert-manager	✅	✅	✅	✅
Kyverno	✅	✅	✅	✅
Gatekeeper	✅	✅	✅	✅
Registry
Local Registry	✅	✅	✅	✅
Mirror Registries	✅	✅	✅	✅
External Registries with Auth	✅	✅	✅	✅

Notes:

• “Built-in” means the distribution includes this component by default
• K3s includes local-path-provisioner, metrics-server, and ServiceLB (load balancer) out of the box
• Talos CSI support is provider-dependent: Local Path Provisioner for Docker, Hetzner CSI Driver for Hetzner Cloud
• LoadBalancer support by distribution — see LoadBalancer Configuration for full details:
  • Vanilla (Kind) on Docker: Uses cloud-provider-kind (runs as external Docker container)
  • K3s on Docker: Uses built-in ServiceLB (Klipper-LB)
  • Talos on Docker: Uses MetalLB with default IP pool (172.18.255.200-172.18.255.250)
  • Talos on Hetzner: Uses Hetzner Cloud Load Balancer (cloud provider integration)
• VCluster footnotes:
  • ¹ CNI is managed internally by the vCluster control plane — Vind configures networking within the Docker containers
  • ² CSI is managed internally by vCluster — no separate CSI driver needed
  • ³ LoadBalancer is delegated to the host cluster by vCluster — spec.cluster.loadBalancer has no effect on VCluster and KSail does not install any LoadBalancer controller
  • ⁴ Metrics Server is managed internally by vCluster

Secret Management × Provider Matrix

Provider	Encryption	Decryption	Edit
age	✅	✅	✅
PGP	✅	✅	✅
AWS KMS	✅	✅	✅
GCP KMS	✅	✅	✅
Azure Key Vault	✅	✅	✅
HashiCorp Vault	✅	✅	✅

Notes:

• Cloud KMS providers require appropriate credentials configured
• See SOPS documentation for provider-specific setup

CLI Commands

Command Group	Commands Available
ksail cluster	init, create, update, delete, start, stop, info, list, connect, backup, restore
ksail workload	apply, create, delete, describe, edit, exec, explain, export, expose, gen, get, images, import, install, logs, push, reconcile, rollout, scale, validate, wait
ksail cipher	encrypt, decrypt, edit, import

Update Behavior

The ksail cluster update command applies configuration changes to a running cluster. Changes are classified by impact: in-place (no disruption), reboot-required (node restart needed), or recreate-required (full cluster recreation).

Change	Vanilla (Kind)	K3s (K3d)	Talos	VCluster (Vind)
Distribution	Recreate	Recreate	Recreate	Recreate
Provider	Recreate	Recreate	Recreate	Recreate
CNI	In-place	In-place	In-place	N/A
CSI	In-place	In-place	In-place	N/A
Metrics Server	In-place	In-place	In-place	N/A
Load Balancer	In-place	In-place	N/A¹	N/A
cert-manager	In-place	In-place	In-place	In-place
Policy Engine	In-place	In-place	In-place	In-place
GitOps Engine	In-place	In-place	In-place	In-place
Local Registry	Recreate	In-place	In-place	In-place
Mirrors Dir	Recreate	N/A	N/A	N/A
Control Planes	Recreate	Recreate	In-place	Recreate
Workers	Recreate	In-place	In-place	N/A
Hetzner Server Type (CP)	N/A	N/A	Recreate	N/A
Hetzner Location	N/A	N/A	Recreate	N/A
Hetzner Network	N/A	N/A	Recreate	N/A

Notes:

• “In-place” changes are applied without cluster downtime via Helm or provider APIs
• “Recreate” changes require ksail cluster delete && ksail cluster create or ksail cluster update --force
• If no changes are detected, ksail cluster update exits immediately with no modifications (idempotent no-op)
• Use ksail cluster update --dry-run to preview changes before applying
• Talos supports the broadest set of in-place updates, including node scaling for both control-plane and worker nodes
• Kind does not support any structural node changes after creation
• VCluster (Vind) runs control-plane and optional worker nodes as Docker containers — CNI, CSI, and metrics-server are managed by the vCluster Helm chart and are N/A for update operations; LoadBalancer services are provided by the host cluster, and spec.cluster.loadBalancer is ignored for VCluster and will not trigger a cluster update
• ¹ Load Balancer for Talos: For Talos, the provider determines which LoadBalancer implementation is used (MetalLB on Docker, Hetzner Cloud Controller Manager on Hetzner). The spec.cluster.loadBalancer setting controls whether KSail installs LoadBalancer support. See FAQ for details.

Platform Requirements

Requirement	Minimum	Recommended
Docker	Docker Desktop 4.x or Docker Engine 24.x	Latest stable
RAM	4 GB	8 GB+
CPU	2 cores	4 cores+
Disk	10 GB	20 GB+

Operating System Support:

OS	Support
macOS (Apple Silicon)	✅
Linux (x86_64)	✅
Linux (arm64)	✅
Windows (WSL2)	✅
Windows (native)	❌

Version Compatibility

KSail embeds specific versions of Kubernetes tooling:

Tool	Embedded Version	Purpose
kubectl	Latest	Kubernetes CLI
Helm	v4 (with kstatus)	Package manager
Kind	Latest	Vanilla clusters
K3d	Latest	K3s clusters
vCluster SDK	v0.32.1	VCluster virtual clusters
Flux	Latest	GitOps toolkit
ArgoCD	Latest	GitOps continuous delivery
SOPS	Latest	Secret encryption

Notes:

• Kubernetes versions depend on the distribution release
• Component versions (CNI, CSI, etc.) are updated with KSail releases
• See releases for specific version information

Next Steps

• Features – Explore what KSail can do
• Concepts – Understand the technologies
• Configuration – Complete configuration reference