quick-k8s

GitHub Action that deploys Kubernetes clusters on GitHub Actions runners for testing and development. Supports KinD (default) and Minikube as cluster providers.

Requirements

Runner	Architecture	Status
ubuntu-22.04	x86_64	Fully supported
ubuntu-22.04-arm	ARM64	Fully supported
ubuntu-24.04	x86_64	Fully supported
ubuntu-24.04-arm	ARM64	Fully supported
ubuntu-26.04	x86_64	Fully supported

Quick Start

steps:
  - name: Set up Quick-K8s
    uses: palmsoftware/quick-k8s@v0

This creates a 1 control-plane + 1 worker cluster with Calico CNI. To use Minikube instead:

steps:
  - name: Set up Quick-K8s with Minikube
    uses: palmsoftware/quick-k8s@v0
    with:
      clusterProvider: minikube
      minikubeVersion: v1.38.1
      minikubeDriver: docker

All inputs have sensible defaults. See the Configuration Reference for the complete list.

Features

Feature	Enable	Details
Istio service mesh	installIstio: true	Guide
cert-manager TLS	installCertManager: true	Guide
ingress-nginx controller	installIngressNginx: true	Guide
metrics-server (HPA)	installMetricsServer: true	Guide
operator-sdk CLI	installOperatorSdk: true	Guide
MetalLB load balancer	installMetalLB: true	Guide
Monitoring (Prometheus/Thanos/Grafana)	enableClusterMonitoring: true	Guide
CNI selection (Calico/Cilium/none)	cniPlugin: cilium	Guide
Custom KinD config	kindConfigPath: path	Guide
Local Docker registry	installLocalRegistry: true	Guide

Using the Cluster

The action configures kubectl (and oc on Linux) automatically. No extra setup needed:

- name: Verify cluster
  run: |
    kubectl get nodes
    kubectl cluster-info

See the Downstream Usage Guide for kubeconfig details, context names, and storage classes.

Guides

Guide	Description
Configuration Reference	All inputs with defaults for KinD and Minikube
Optional Features	Istio, cert-manager, ingress-nginx, monitoring, and more
Cluster Providers	KinD vs Minikube comparison and recommendations
Networking	IP family configuration (dual-stack, IPv4, IPv6)
Resource Management	Adaptive disk and memory optimization
Downstream Usage	Using kubectl/oc, kubeconfig, storage classes
Resource Requirements	RAM, disk, and timing for each component
Troubleshooting	Common issues and solutions
Version Compatibility	Component version matrix and known issues

Examples

The examples/ directory contains copy-paste-ready workflow recipes:

Example	Description
basic-cluster.yml	Minimal cluster for CI testing
istio-service-mesh.yml	Cluster with Istio and sidecar injection
monitoring-stack.yml	Full Prometheus/Thanos/Grafana stack
multi-node-cluster.yml	Multi-node with labels and topology spread
custom-cni.yml	Cilium CNI example
local-registry.yml	Local Docker registry for image builds
operator-development.yml	OLM + operator-sdk + cert-manager
full-stack.yml	All components combined

History

Originally built upon KinD and tuned as part of certsuite-sample-workload, the project now supports KinD and Minikube as cluster providers.

This action is essentially a wrapper around best practices for deploying Kubernetes environments that run well on GitHub Actions free-tier Ubuntu runners, with intelligent resource management and optimizations for CI/CD workflows.

References

• install-oc-tools.sh was a script copied from install-oc-tools and slightly modified for aarch64.