# Carvel

**Canonical:** https://apis.io/providers/carvel/  
**Website:** https://carvel.dev/  
**APIs profiled:** 7

Carvel is a set of reliable, single-purpose, composable command-line tools that help build, configure, and deploy applications to Kubernetes. The toolset includes ytt for YAML templating, kapp for application lifecycle management, kbld for immutable image references, imgpkg for OCI bundling, vendir for vendored configuration, and kapp-controller for GitOps-style continuous delivery.

## Kin Score — 17.3 / 100 (emerging)

Scored 2026-08-20 under rubric 0.12.0. Trend: flat (+0.0 from 17.3).

| Facet | Score |
|---|---|
| Discoverability | 64.8 |
| Contract Quality | 0.0 |
| Governance | 0.0 |
| Contract Governance | 0.0 |
| Operational Transparency | 36.8 |
| Developer Ergonomics | 14.3 |
| Commercial Clarity | 15.8 |
| Access Clarity | 15.8 |

## Agent readiness — 3.0 (human-only)

| Dimension | Value |
|---|---|
| Spec Presence | no |
| Agentic Access | no |
| Reversibility Documented | no |
| MCP Server | no |
| Auth Clarity | no |
| Idempotency | no |
| Error Semantics | no |
| OpenAPI Examples | no |
| Rate Limit Signal | documented |
| Event Surface Described | no |
| Agent Skills | no |
| Well Known Catalog | no |
| Consent Identity | no |
| Agent Card | no |
| Dry Run Mode | no |

## Access

Freemium — onboarding: unknown, pricing: freemium, trial: no (confidence: medium).

## APIs (7)

- **ytt** — ytt is a templating tool that understands YAML structure, letting you use familiar YAML constructs and Python-like language (Starlark) to template Kubernetes configuration. Supp...
- **kapp** — kapp is a CLI tool that installs, upgrades, and deletes multiple Kubernetes resources as a single application. It provides change set previews, resource ordering, and convergenc...
- **kbld** — kbld builds or references container images in Kubernetes configuration in an immutable way by resolving image tags to digests and optionally building images from source during t...
- **imgpkg** — imgpkg bundles and distributes application configuration and container images as OCI artifacts via Docker registries, enabling relocation across registries including air-gapped ...
- **vendir** — vendir declaratively states what files should be in a directory, syncing from upstream sources such as Git repositories, HTTP archives, Helm charts, and OCI images. Enables repr...
- **kapp-controller** — kapp-controller is a Kubernetes controller that provides GitOps-style continuous delivery for applications and packages using Carvel tools. It introduces PackageRepository, Pack...
- **secretgen-controller** — secretgen-controller provides CRDs to generate Kubernetes Secrets, export and import secrets across namespaces, and manage certificate and password creation declaratively.

## Security (1)

- **Carvel Domain Security** — TLSv1.3 · HSTS

## Plans (1)

- **Carvel Plans Pricing**

## Tags

CLI, Configuration, Containers, Deployment, GitOps, Kubernetes, Package Management, Templating

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Profiled by [API Evangelist](https://apievangelist.com) and published on [APIs.io](https://apis.io/providers/carvel/). Scores are computed from the provider's own public artifacts under a published rubric.