Tekton is a Kubernetes-native CI/CD framework that models pipelines entirely as Kubernetes custom resources. Every unit of work is a pod, every pipeline is a CRD, and there is no long-running build server to operate: the Kubernetes control plane is the scheduler and state store.
The core primitives are Step (a container), Task (an ordered list of Steps that run in a single pod sharing a workspace), Pipeline (a DAG of Tasks with parameter passing and results), and the TaskRun/PipelineRun resources that represent a single execution. Workspaces abstract over persistent volumes, ConfigMaps, or secrets so Tasks can share files without baking volume assumptions into their definitions. Tekton Triggers turns webhook payloads into PipelineRuns, Tekton Chains signs artifacts and produces in-toto/SLSA provenance using Sigstore, Tekton Results archives completed runs, and Tekton Hub and the Tekton Catalog distribute reusable Tasks.
Tekton began at Google as a fork of the Knative build project and is now a CDF (Continuous Delivery Foundation) project. It is the engine underneath Jenkins X, OpenShift Pipelines, and Google Cloud Build’s second-generation offering.
