Installation

Install Tekton Pipelines on your Kubernetes cluster

Prerequisites

Before installing Tekton Pipelines, ensure you have:

1. Kubernetes Cluster

   A Kubernetes cluster running version 1.28 or later

2. kubectl CLI

   The kubectl command-line tool installed and configured

3. Cluster Admin Privileges

   Grant cluster-admin privileges to your current user. See the Kubernetes RBAC documentation for details

4. Metrics Server (Optional)

   Install a Metrics Server if you need support for high availability use cases

If you want to test Tekton on your local machine, check out the local installation guide for options like Kind, Minikube, or Docker Desktop.

Install Tekton Pipelines

Latest Official Release

To install the latest stable version of Tekton Pipelines:

kubectl apply --filename https://storage.googleapis.com/tekton-releases/pipeline/latest/release.yaml

These quick start instructions are ideal for getting started with Tekton Pipelines but are not recommended for production use. For production deployments, use the Tekton Operator to install, upgrade, and manage Tekton projects.

Alternative Installation Options

Nightly Release

Install the latest nightly build with cutting-edge features:

kubectl apply --filename https://storage.googleapis.com/tekton-releases-nightly/pipeline/latest/release.yaml

Specific Version

Install a specific version by replacing <version_number> with the desired version (e.g., v0.26.0):

kubectl apply --filename https://storage.googleapis.com/tekton-releases/pipeline/previous/<version_number>/release.yaml

Untagged Release

If your container runtime doesn’t support image-reference:tag@digest format:

kubectl apply --filename https://storage.googleapis.com/tekton-releases/pipeline/latest/release.notags.yaml

Verify Installation

Monitor the installation progress by watching the Tekton Pipelines pods:

kubectl get pods --namespace tekton-pipelines --watch

When all components show 1/1 under the READY column, the installation is complete:

NAME                                           READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
tekton-pipelines-controller-68b8d87687-6x7k8   1/1     Running   0          2m
tekton-pipelines-webhook-69f6d8b4c-5m89j       1/1     Running   0          2m

Press Ctrl + C to stop monitoring.

The tekton-pipelines namespace is automatically created during installation and contains all Tekton components.

Verify Installation with a Test Task

Create a simple test to confirm Tekton is working:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: tekton.dev/v1
kind: TaskRun
metadata:
  generateName: hello-
spec:
  taskSpec:
    steps:
      - name: echo
        image: ubuntu
        script: |
          #!/usr/bin/env bash
          echo "Hello from Tekton!"
EOF

Check the TaskRun status:

kubectl get taskrun

You should see output similar to:

NAME          SUCCEEDED   REASON      STARTTIME   COMPLETIONTIME
hello-abc123  True        Succeeded   30s         25s

Additional Configuration

Tekton Pipelines supports extensive configuration options:

Alpha & Beta Features

Enable experimental features for early access to new capabilities

Execution Parameters

Customize timeouts, resource limits, and execution behavior

High Availability

Configure controller replicas and metrics for production deployments

Multi-Tenancy

Isolate pipelines across teams and projects (partial support)

See the additional configuration options documentation for detailed configuration guidance.

Multi-Tenant Considerations

Multi-tenant installation is only partially supported today. Review the multi-tenant support guide for current limitations and best practices.

Next Steps

Now that Tekton Pipelines is installed, you’re ready to start building:

Quick Start Tutorial

Create your first Task and Pipeline in minutes

Explore Examples

Browse real-world examples and patterns