Tekton Pipelines 0.5: Building Blocks Solidify

Introduction

Tekton Pipelines 0.5, released on November 18, 2019, represents a consolidation release: API stability increases, controller performance improves, and new projects like Tekton Triggers and Pipelines Catalog take shape around it.

API & Controller Refinements

• TaskRun/PipelineRun Status: Clear conditions for Succeeded, Failed, and PipelineRun cancellation scenarios.
• PipelineResources Revisited: Better Git, image, and cluster resource handling with validation.
• Performance: Controller batching cuts reconciliation time for large DAGs.

Ecosystem Momentum

1. Tekton Triggers (Alpha): Define EventListeners that convert webhooks into PipelineRuns.
2. Chains Initiative: Providence and signature metadata prototype for supply chain security.
3. Tekton Catalog: Community-contributed tasks for common build, test, and security steps.

Integration Highlights

• Knative: Serving and Eventing teams adopt Tekton for release pipelines.
• OpenShift Pipelines: Red Hat packages Tekton 0.5 as an Operator with console integration.
• Cloud Build: Google previews managed Tekton services for cloud-based CI/CD.

Getting Started

kubectl apply -f https://storage.googleapis.com/tekton-releases/pipeline/previous/v0.5.0/release.yaml
kubectl get crds | grep tekton

Trigger pipelines from GitHub events:

kubectl apply -f triggers/trigger-template.yaml
kubectl apply -f triggers/event-listener.yaml

Summary

Tekton 0.5 is the release where pipelines feel production-ready, sparking an ecosystem that spans triggers, cataloged tasks, and supply chain security primitives.