Crossplane is a Kubernetes-based control plane framework that functions as a cloud resource orchestrator and infrastructure-as-code platform. It enables the management of heterogeneous infrastructure by extending the Kubernetes API to provision and maintain external cloud services through declarative configuration. By utilizing custom resource controllers, it continuously reconciles the state of external infrastructure with defined desired states, ensuring consistent deployment and lifecycle management across multiple cloud providers.
The platform distinguishes itself through its composition-based architecture, which allows users to aggregate multiple managed resources into unified, abstract infrastructure APIs. This approach leverages container-native package distribution to bundle infrastructure definitions and logic, enabling versioned deployment via standard registries. Furthermore, it supports external function orchestration, allowing for complex transformations and custom logic to be executed during the resource composition lifecycle, rather than relying solely on static templates.
Beyond core orchestration, the project provides a comprehensive suite of operational capabilities, including GitOps workflow integration, automated resource lifecycle management, and granular security controls. It includes diagnostic and observability frameworks for auditing infrastructure changes, monitoring resource health, and troubleshooting reconciliation performance. The system also manages sensitive connection details by aggregating and propagating credentials from managed resources to consuming applications.
The project is distributed as a set of containerized packages and includes a command-line interface for local development, validation, and debugging of infrastructure configurations.
