linkerd2 README

The project's README from github.com/linkerd/linkerd2. As one markdown file: README.md.

Linkerd

Linkerd

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:balloon: Welcome to Linkerd! :wave:

Linkerd is an ultralight, security-first service mesh for Kubernetes. Linkerd adds critical security, observability, and reliability features to your Kubernetes stack with no code change required.

Linkerd is a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project.

Repo layout

This is the primary repo for the Linkerd 2.x line of development.

The complete list of Linkerd repos is:

Quickstart and documentation

You can run Linkerd on any modern Kubernetes cluster in a matter of seconds. See the Linkerd Getting Started Guide for how.

For more comprehensive documentation, start with the Linkerd docs. (The doc source code is available in the website repo.)

Working in this repo

BUILD.md includes general information on how to work in this repo.

We :heart: pull requests! See CONTRIBUTING.md for info on contributing changes.

Get involved

Steering Committee meetings

We host regular online meetings for the Linkerd Steering Committee. All are welcome to attend, but audio and video participation is limited to Steering Committee members and maintainers. These meetings are currently scheduled on an ad-hoc basis and announced on the linkerd-users mailing list.

Code of Conduct

This project is for everyone. We ask that our users and contributors take a few minutes to review our Code of Conduct.

Security

See SECURITY.md for our security policy, including how to report vulnerabilities.

Linkerd undergoes periodic third-party security audits and we publish the results here.

License

Copyright 2025 the Linkerd Authors. All rights reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use these files except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

linkerd2 (linkerd/linkerd2)

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11.5K ·GitHub
Linkerd2
What is this?Linkerd is an ultralight, security-first service mesh for Kubernetes that adds encryption, observability, and reliability features to your cluster's traffic without requiring any code changes to your apps.
Is this a standalone app or does it plug into my existing cluster?It's a control plane plus a lightweight data-plane proxy that gets injected as a sidecar into your existing Kubernetes pods; this repo holds the control plane and CLI, while the proxy itself lives in a separate repo written in Rust.
How do I get it running on my cluster?Follow the Linkerd Getting Started Guide, which walks through installing the CLI and the control plane on any modern Kubernetes cluster in a matter of seconds.
Where does it run?Anywhere a modern Kubernetes cluster runs.
What repos make up the Linkerd project?linkerd2 (control plane and CLI, this repo), linkerd2-proxy (the data plane proxy), linkerd2-proxy-api (gRPC API bindings), linkerd (the older 1.x line), and the website repo with docs.
Is Linkerd independently governed?Yes, it's a Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) project with a Steering Committee that holds regular open meetings.
Has Linkerd been security audited?Yes, the project undergoes periodic third-party security audits and publishes the results.
Why is it described as 'ultralight'?Its data-plane proxy is written in Rust specifically to keep the sidecar footprint small compared to heavier mesh proxies.
What are similar projects?istio, consul, cilium, thanos, litmus, encore, kubeshark, cert-manager
Which topics is it in?service-mesh, infrastructure, cloud-native, microservices, observability, encryption, golang, distributed-systems, kubernetes, proxy, monitoring, devops
Creator
linkerd
Size
56.6 MB
Stars
11.5K
Updated
CommitOct 15Releaseedge-26.10.1Oct 05
Age
8y
Commits · 90 Days