Tekton is a cloud-native, open-source framework for building CI/CD systems that runs as a set of Kubernetes CRDs inside any cluster. Unlike hosted CI services, Tekton makes every pipeline step a container, giving teams full control over build environments and resource scheduling without managing separate CI infrastructure. The key mental model: every concept in Tekton — Task, Pipeline, Run — is a Kubernetes object you kubectl apply, meaning GitOps, RBAC, namespacing, and all standard K8s tooling work natively out of the box.
What This Cheat Sheet Covers
This topic spans 18 focused tables and 137 indexed concepts. Below is a complete table-by-table outline of this topic, spanning foundational concepts through advanced details.
Table 1: Core CRD Resource Types
Tekton's building blocks are Kubernetes Custom Resource Definitions. Understanding each CRD type and its runtime counterpart is essential before writing any pipeline YAML.
| Type | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
kind: Taskspec: steps: - name: build image: golang:1.22 command: [go, build, ./...] | Reusable, namespaced unit of work composed of one or more sequential Steps, each running in its own container. | |
kind: TaskRunspec: taskRef: name: build-task serviceAccountName: build-bot | • A single instantiation of a Task • creates a Pod and executes Steps in order | |
kind: Pipelinespec: tasks: - name: build taskRef: {name: build-task} - name: deploy runAfter: [build] taskRef: {name: deploy-task} | • A DAG of Tasks arranged with runAfter ordering or parallel execution• declares shared Workspaces and parameters |