kindplane up¶

Create and bootstrap a Kind cluster with Crossplane.

Usage¶

kindplane up [flags]

Flags¶

Description¶

The up command creates a Kind cluster and bootstraps it with Crossplane and your configured components.

Bootstrap Process¶

The command performs these steps in order:

1. Create local registry - Creates container registry (if enabled)
2. Configure trusted CAs - Validates CA certificates (if configured)
3. Create Kind cluster - Creates the cluster with configured nodes
4. Pre-load images - Loads local Docker images into cluster (if available)
5. Connect to cluster - Establishes Kubernetes client connection
6. Install pre-crossplane charts - Deploys charts with phase: pre-crossplane
7. Install Crossplane - Deploys Crossplane using Helm
8. Install post-crossplane charts - Deploys charts with phase: post-crossplane
9. Install providers - Deploys configured Crossplane providers
10. Wait for providers - Waits for all providers to be healthy
11. Install post-providers charts - Deploys charts with phase: post-providers
12. Install final charts - Deploys charts with phase: final
13. Apply compositions - Deploys XRDs and Compositions

Image Pre-loading¶

By default, kindplane checks your local Docker daemon for Crossplane and provider images and pre-loads them into the cluster. This significantly speeds up bootstrap by avoiding slow registry pulls.

How it works:

• Scans configured providers and derives their controller image names
• Checks if images exist in your local Docker daemon
• If no images found locally, prompts you to pull them (in TTY mode)
• Pre-loads found images using one of two modes:
• Registry mode: Pushes to local registry (if cluster.registry.enabled: true)
• Direct mode: Loads directly into Kind nodes

Interactive Prompt:

When running interactively and no images are found:

No local images found. The following images can be pulled for faster future bootstraps:

  - crossplane/crossplane:v1.15.0
  - xpkg.upbound.io/upbound/provider-aws:v1.1.0

Pull 2 images now? [y/N]

Use --pull-images to automatically pull without prompting:

kindplane up --pull-images

Benefits:

• Faster bootstrap (no network pulls for cached images)
• Works offline once images are cached locally
• Reduces load on remote registries

Configuration:

crossplane:
  imageCache:
    enabled: true  # Default
    preloadProviders: true  # Default
    preloadCrossplane: true  # Default

See Image Cache Configuration for details.

Display Modes¶

kindplane automatically detects your terminal:

• Dashboard mode (TTY) - Interactive TUI with real-time progress
• Print mode (non-TTY/CI) - Traditional log output

Examples¶

Full Bootstrap¶

kindplane up

Skip Crossplane¶

Useful for testing cluster creation only:

kindplane up --skip-crossplane

Skip Providers¶

kindplane up --skip-providers

Skip All Optional Components¶

kindplane up --skip-providers --skip-charts --skip-compositions

Rollback on Failure¶

Automatically delete the cluster if bootstrap fails:

kindplane up --rollback-on-failure

Custom Timeout¶

Increase timeout for slow networks:

kindplane up --timeout 20m

Show Helm Values¶

Display merged values during installation:

kindplane up --show-values

Use Different Configuration¶

kindplane up --config production.yaml

Progress Output¶

The command shows real-time progress:

 Bootstrap Cluster
--------------------------------------------------
  Cluster: kindplane-dev
  Config:  kindplane.yaml

  → Create Kind cluster
  → Connect to cluster
  → Install Crossplane
  → Install providers

→ Create Kind cluster
  ✓ Preparing nodes
  ✓ Writing configuration
  ✓ Starting control-plane
  ✓ Installing CNI
  ✓ Installing StorageClass

✓ Cluster created
→ Connect to cluster...
✓ Connected
→ Installing Crossplane 1.15.0...
  ✓ Adding Helm repository
  ✓ Creating namespace
  ✓ Installing Helm chart
→ Waiting for Crossplane pods...
  crossplane-6d4f8b9c7-xk2jl    Running  1/1
  crossplane-rbac-manager-5f7d  Running  1/1

✓ Bootstrap complete!

Failure Diagnostics¶

When bootstrap fails, kindplane shows detailed diagnostics:

✗ Providers failed to become healthy: context deadline exceeded

╭────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╮
│  Provider Diagnostics                                           │
│                                                                │
│  ✗ provider-aws                                                │
│    Package: xpkg.upbound.io/upbound/provider-aws:v1.1.0        │
│    Conditions:                                                 │
│      ✗ Healthy: False                                          │
│        Reason: UnhealthyPackageRevision                        │
│        Message: cannot resolve package dependencies...          │
│                                                                │
│  Pod Status                                                    │
│    provider-aws-7b8f9d6c5-xk2jl (crossplane-system)            │
│      Phase: Running                                            │
│      Ready: 0/1 containers                                     │
│      Recent Logs:                                              │
│        error: failed to initialize provider                    │
╰────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╯

Existing Cluster¶

If a cluster with the same name already exists:

! Cluster 'kindplane-dev' already exists (skipped)

The cluster phase is skipped and bootstrap continues with the existing cluster.

Tips¶

• Use --rollback-on-failure in CI/CD to ensure clean state
• Increase --timeout for slow container registries
• Use --skip-* flags to isolate problems during debugging
• Run kindplane doctor before first bootstrap to verify prerequisites