What's New in Kargo v0.8.0

Kargo v0.8.0 is here! We are thrilled to announce the latest release of Kargo, the revolutionary GitOps promotion tool that eliminates the need for bespoke continuous delivery release scripts run in CI workflows; while providing the best experience that enables Continuous Promotion! This new version marks a significant milestone that’s chock full of improvements, bug fixes, and the introduction of a major new feature: Multi-Pipelines. Kargo continues to push the boundaries of continuous promotion technology for GitOps release pipelines, making it more flexible and powerful than ever before.

There’s so much to go over that we don’t have enough room to fit it all in, so we’ll just highlight some of the key features and improvements. For a detailed list of changes, please refer to the full changelog.

Multi-Pipelines

Kargo v0.8.0 introduces the groundbreaking capability for stages to host multiple pieces of Freight (artifacts) of different types simultaneously. Multi-Pipelines allow for the advancement of different artifacts through the same stages in parallel and at different cadences, addressing the needs of users with advanced use cases. Users can now promote container images and manifests at different speeds, allowing for quicker production rollouts for certain artifacts while also enabling other users that want to "soak" and stabilize. This update significantly enhances the delivery of applications composed of multiple microservices by allowing parallel progression through stages without the need for separate sets of stages for each microservice.

The new multi-pipeline capability necessitates changes to the spec and status of Stage resources, requiring stages to reference warehouses and upstream stages for multiple types of Freight. In short, there are breaking changes in v0.8.0.

Before this release, you could subscribe to Warehouses using the following configuration in your Stage manifest.

spec:
  subscriptions:
    warehouse: kargo-demo

In Kargo v0.8.0, we changed the methodology to users requesting freight directly from the warehouse to facilitate a subscription.

spec:
  requestedFreight:
  - origin:
      kind: Warehouse
      name: kargo-demo
    sources:
      direct: true

For more information, please see the documentation on Stages.

An automated migration process from v0.7.x to v0.8.0 has been implemented to facilitate a smooth transition. Although automatic migration is in place for those upgrading from v0.7.x, users are encouraged to update their Stage manifests to ensure seamless integration with GitOps agents like Argo CD and prepare for future updates.

Notable Improvements and Changes

Kargo v0.8.0 expands its support for credential management, including EKS Pod Identity, IRSA, and improved access to Git and OCI repositories. Enhanced support for GitHub Enterprise and self-hosted GitLab instances ensures secure and efficient repository access.

Numerous UI improvements include a paginated and searchable Projects view, sidebar navigation links to documentation and CLI binaries, and a more intuitive Freight Timeline with improved filtering and performance options.

Additional improvements include better evaluation of Stage health, improved Freight-comparison logic, and reduced impact of falsely reported "Healthy" states in Argo CD Applications.

Looking Ahead

Akuity is committed to continuously enhancing Kargo’s capabilities. The upcoming v0.9.0 release will focus on providing fewer opinions and more flexibility in promotion mechanisms. Users can expect a more granular, directive-based approach to promotion processes, paving the way for user-defined and third-party promotion capabilities. While it’s commonly known that the path to any GA release is paved with breaking changes, you can expect the Kargo team to make every effort to automate the upgrade process so that any breaking changes incurred will pose minimal disruption to your Kargo implementations.

Community Updates

Kargo would be nothing without its community, so we'd like to recognize @anubhav06 for their first contribution, included in this release. Thank you for helping to make Kargo better!

We also want to thank our users who have taken the time to use Kargo and provide feedback. Your feedback has been invaluable and helps improve Kargo for all users. For those who are looking to be part of the community, you can jump on over to Kargo community Discord.

Try it Out!

The Kargo team at Akuity is dedicated to advancing the field of GitOps by providing cutting-edge solutions for continuous deployment and promotion. Our mission is to empower DevOps teams with the tools they need to deliver software faster and more reliably. Are you a GitOps practitioner ready to try out Kargo? Head over to Kargo GitHub page, where you can start your Continuous Promotion journey.

Already a Kargo user and want to take it to the next level? Sign up for our Kargo Enterprise early access.