Ditch the Default K8s Dashboard: Meet Kite, the Lightweight Pro‑Grade UI

What is Kite

Kite is a lightweight Kubernetes dashboard with a Chinese UI. It uses a Go backend and a React frontend to provide real‑time metrics, multi‑cluster support, and enterprise‑grade security.

Installation

1. Install with Helm (recommended)

helm repo add kite https://zxh326.github.io/kite
helm repo update
helm install kite kite/kite -n kube-system

For production, customize the JWT secret and encryption key in the Helm values file.

2. Install by applying the manifest directly

kubectl apply -f deploy/install.yaml
# or from the remote URL
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zxh326/kite/refs/heads/main/deploy/install.yaml

Accessing the Dashboard

Expose the kite Service after deployment.

LoadBalancer (cloud environments)

kubectl patch svc kite -n kite-system -p '{"spec": {"type": "LoadBalancer"}}'

Ingress (recommended for production)

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: kite
  namespace: kite-system
spec:
  ingressClassName: nginx
  rules:
    - host: kite.example.com
      http:
        paths:
          - path: /
            pathType: Prefix
            backend:
              service:
                name: kite
                port:
                  number: 8080

After the endpoint is reachable, the initial setup wizard runs.

Multi‑cluster configuration

Kite can be configured for multiple clusters to enable real‑time metrics, resource management, and log streaming.

Summary

Kite focuses on frequent operational tasks—status inspection, log viewing, configuration editing, command execution—while providing a Chinese interface.

Repository: https://github.com/zxh326/kite