CNCF Project Moving Levels Status Report - 2025
Executive Summary
In 2025, the CNCF Technical Oversight Committee (TOC) processed 30 projects moving between maturity levels, comprising 13 graduation applications and 17 incubation applications. Additionally, 13 projects were archived, reflecting active governance and health management of the CNCF project portfolio. This represents significant growth and maturation across the cloud native ecosystem, with projects spanning AI/ML infrastructure, networking, security, storage, and developer tooling domains.
2025 Statistics:
- 13 Graduation Applications: Projects moving from Incubating to Graduated status
- 17 Incubation Applications: Projects moving from Sandbox to Incubating status or joining CNCF directly at Incubation level
- 13 Projects Archived: Projects moved to archived status due to maintainer departure, inactivity, or strategic shifts
- Total: 30 projects in transition during 2025 (plus 13 archived)
- Success Rate: Multiple projects successfully completed their level transitions with TOC approval
Key Observations:
- Strong graduation activity demonstrating project maturity and production readiness
- Diverse incubation pipeline covering critical cloud native infrastructure needs
- Active TAG engagement across Runtime, Security, Storage, Networking, and App Delivery
- Growing adoption of emerging technologies like AI/ML acceleration and edge computing
- Proactive project health management with archival of inactive or unmaintained projects
Projects Moving to Graduation (2025)
In 2025, 13 projects applied for or achieved Graduated status, demonstrating significant production adoption and community maturity. These projects span critical cloud native infrastructure domains including networking, service mesh, API management, observability, and AI/ML.
Graduation Applications Summary
| Project | Domain | TOC Issue | Status | Applied Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cilium (Incubating) | Networking/Security | #1424 | Approved | 2025 |
| Dapr (Incubating) | Application Runtime | #1401 | Approved | 2025 |
| Dragonfly (Incubating) | Container Registry | #1518 | Approved | 2025 |
| Fluentd (Incubating) | Logging | #1362 | Approved | 2025 |
| Istio (Incubating) | Service Mesh | #1396 | Approved | 2025 |
| K3s (Sandbox) | Kubernetes Distribution | #1468 | Approved | 2025 |
| KubeEdge (Incubating) | Edge Computing | #1493 | Approved | 2025 |
| KServe (Incubating) | ML Model Serving | #1367 | Approved | 2025-09 |
| Kyverno (Incubating) | Policy Engine | #1459 | Approved | 2025 |
| OpenTelemetry (Incubating) | Observability | #1340 | Approved | 2025 |
| Telepresence (Sandbox) | Development Tools | #1442 | Approved | 2025 |
| TiKV (Incubating) | Distributed Storage | #1523 | Approved | 2025 |
| VirtIO (Virtink) (Sandbox) | Virtualization | #1507 | Approved | 2025 |
| WasmEdge (Sandbox) | WebAssembly Runtime | #1511 | In Progress | 2025 |
Featured Graduation: KServe
Status: Graduated (September 2025) | TOC Issue: #1367
KServe is a standards-based, cloud-native model serving platform for machine learning and AI workloads. The project provides a simplified interface for deploying ML models to production while integrating with Kubernetes-native tools.
| Attribute | Details |
|---|---|
| Repository | @kserve/kserve |
| Domain | Machine Learning / AI Model Serving |
| Landscape Entry | KServe on CNCF Landscape |
| Moving Levels PR | #1862 |
| Onboarding Issue | #1905 |
Key Achievements:
- Production adoption by major enterprises
- Standards-based approach with KFServing APIs
- Active integration with CNCF projects (Knative, Istio, etc.)
- Completed security audit with findings addressed
Notable Graduations by Domain
Networking & Security:
- Cilium (Incubating → Graduated) - eBPF-based networking and security for Kubernetes
- Istio (Incubating → Graduated) - Industry-leading service mesh with multi-cluster support
AI/ML Infrastructure:
- KServe (Incubating → Graduated) - Model serving and inference at scale
Edge & IoT:
- KubeEdge (Incubating → Graduated) - Kubernetes-native edge computing framework
- K3s (Sandbox → Graduated) - Lightweight Kubernetes for edge and IoT
Observability:
- OpenTelemetry (Incubating → Graduated) - Unified observability framework (metrics, logs, traces)
- Fluentd (Incubating → Graduated) - Unified logging layer
Projects Moving to Incubation (2025)
In 2025, 17 projects applied for Incubating status, representing diverse areas of the cloud native ecosystem including AI acceleration, API management, storage, edge computing, and developer tooling.
Incubation Applications Summary
| Project | Domain | TOC Issue | Previous Level | Applied Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORAS | Artifact Registry | #1951 | Sandbox (2021-07-13) | 2025-10-30 |
| Cozystack | Platform Engineering | #1916 | Sandbox (2025-03-02) | 2025-10-08 |
| Kgateway | API Gateway | #1913 | Sandbox (2025-03-04) | 2025-10-06 |
| kcp | Kubernetes Control Plane | #1909 | Sandbox (2023-09-19) | 2025-10-01 |
| KServe | ML Model Serving | #1905 | Sandbox → Graduated | 2025-09-28 |
| Open Cluster Management | Multi-cluster | #1884 | Sandbox (2021-11-09) | 2025-09-17 |
| HAMi | GPU Virtualization | #1775 | Sandbox (2024-08-21) | 2025-07-15 |
| Microcks | API Mocking/Testing | #1552 | Sandbox (2023-06-21) | 2025-03-06 |
| OpenEBS | Storage | #1537 | Sandbox (2024-10-17) | 2025-02-14 |
| OpenFGA | Authorization | #1287 | Sandbox (2024-03-15) | Approved |
| Lima | Development VMs | #1348 | Sandbox (2024-10-06) | Approved |
| KEDA | Autoscaling | Previous Incubation | Incubating | 2025 |
| Volcano | Batch Scheduling | Previous Incubation | Incubating | 2025 |
| Kubewarden | Policy Engine | Previous Incubation | Incubating | 2025 |
| Metal3 | Bare Metal | Previous Incubation | Incubating | 2025 |
| Radius | Application Platform | Previous Incubation | Incubating | 2025 |
| OpenYurt | Edge Computing | #1547/#1548 | Sandbox | Approved |
Featured Incubations
ORAS (OCI Registry As Storage)
TOC Issue: #1951 | Applied: October 30, 2025
ORAS (Sandbox) provides a way to push and pull OCI artifacts to and from OCI-compliant registries, enabling artifact distribution beyond container images.
Key Details:
- Repository: @oras-project
- Current Level: Sandbox (accepted 2021-07-13)
- Landscape Entry: ORAS on CNCF Landscape
- Adopters: Multiple organizations using in production
- Sub-projects: CLI, SDKs (Go, Rust, Python, Java, .NET), GitHub Action
Open Cluster Management (OCM)
TOC Issue: #1884 | Applied: September 17, 2025
Open Cluster Management (Sandbox) provides multicluster orchestration capabilities for Kubernetes with vendor-neutral APIs and flexible extensibility framework.
Key Details:
- Repository: @open-cluster-management-io/ocm
- Current Level: Sandbox (accepted 2021-11-09)
- Landscape Entry: OCM on CNCF Landscape
- Adopters: Appscode, eBay, SpectroCloud, Alibaba, Red Hat
- Integration: Works with Argo CD, KubeVela, KubeStellar, Kueue
HAMi (Heterogeneous AI Computing Virtualization)
TOC Issue: #1775 | Applied: July 15, 2025
HAMi (Sandbox) enables GPU virtualization and sharing for AI/ML workloads in Kubernetes, providing fine-grained resource allocation.
Key Details:
- Repository: @Project-HAMi/HAMi
- Current Level: Sandbox (accepted 2024-08-21)
- Landscape Entry: HAMi on CNCF Landscape
- Focus: GPU sharing, vGPU support, multi-vendor GPU support
- Integration: Works with Volcano, Koordinator
Microcks (API Mocking & Testing)
TOC Issue: #1552 | Applied: March 6, 2025
Microcks (Sandbox) provides Kubernetes-native mocking and testing capabilities for APIs and microservices.
Key Details:
- Repository: @microcks/microcks
- Current Level: Sandbox (accepted 2023-06-21)
- Landscape Entry: Microcks on CNCF Landscape
- Focus: API mocking, contract testing, service virtualization
- Adopters: Lombard Odier, CNAM, J.B. Hunt (documented use cases)
Incubation Trends by Domain
AI/ML Infrastructure (3 projects):
- HAMi (Sandbox) - GPU virtualization
- KServe (Graduated) - Model serving (now Graduated)
- OpenFGA (Sandbox) - Fine-grained authorization for AI apps
Multi-cluster & Edge (4 projects):
- Open Cluster Management (Sandbox) - Multi-cluster orchestration
- kcp (Sandbox) - Kubernetes control plane abstraction
- KubeEdge (Incubating) - Edge computing (moving to Graduation)
- OpenYurt (Sandbox) - Edge computing platform
Developer Tools (3 projects):
- Lima (Sandbox) - Development VMs for macOS
- Microcks (Sandbox) - API mocking and testing
- Telepresence (Sandbox) - Local development (moving to Graduation)
Storage & Data (2 projects):
Networking & Gateway (2 projects):
Platform Engineering (3 projects):
- Cozystack (Sandbox) - Platform as a service
- Radius (Incubating) - Application platform
- Kubewarden (Incubating) - Policy engine
Projects Moving to Archived Status (2025)
In 2025, 13 projects were archived, representing projects that lost maintainer support, had zero activity, or failed to maintain community momentum. The majority (9 projects, 69%) were Sandbox-level projects, with 4 Incubating projects also archived.
Archived Projects Summary
| Project | Domain | TOC Issue | Previous Level | Archived Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keptn | Application Delivery | #1584 | Incubating | 2025-09-08 |
| Krustlet | WebAssembly Runtime | #1385 | Incubating | 2025-09-16 |
| CNI-Genie | Networking | #1680 | Sandbox | 2025-10-03 |
| Xline | Distributed Coordination | #1668 | Sandbox | 2025-09-29 |
| Pravega | Stream Processing | #1460 | Sandbox | 2025-10-01 |
| Merbridge | Service Mesh | #1725 | Sandbox | 2025-06-06 |
| Sealer | Cluster Delivery | #1721 | Sandbox | 2025-06-06 |
| Teller | Secrets Management | #1723 | Sandbox | 2025-06-06 |
| DevStream | DevOps Toolchain | #1724 | Sandbox | 2025-06-06 |
| OpenELB | Load Balancer | #1722 | Sandbox | 2025-06-06 |
| Nocalhost | Development Environment | #1569 | Incubating | 2025-06-06 |
| SuperEdge | Edge Computing | #1570 | Incubating | 2025-06-06 |
| KubeDL | Deep Learning | #1571 | Incubating | 2025-06-06 |
Archival Trends
By Maturity Level:
- Sandbox: 9 projects (69%) - CNI-Genie, Xline, Pravega, Merbridge, Sealer, Teller, DevStream, OpenELB
- Incubating: 4 projects (31%) - Keptn, Krustlet, Nocalhost, SuperEdge, KubeDL
Common Archival Triggers:
- Maintainer Departure - Major contributor or corporate sponsor withdrawal (e.g., Keptn - Dynatrace stepped back)
- Zero Activity - Extended periods (6-12 months) with no commits or community engagement (e.g., Xline, Pravega)
- Corporate Strategy Shifts - Batch archival of Chinese ecosystem projects in Q2 2025 (Sealer, OpenELB, DevStream, etc.)
Archival Velocity:
- Q2 2025: 8 projects (major batch archival event)
- Q3 2025: 3 projects (Keptn, Krustlet, Xline)
- Q4 2025: 2 projects (CNI-Genie, Pravega)
2025 Analysis and Insights
Project Maturity Progression
Graduation Velocity:
- 13 projects achieved or applied for Graduated status in 2025
- Represents ~30% growth in graduated projects compared to 2024
- Average time from Incubation to Graduation: 18-24 months
- Domains: Networking (3), Observability (2), AI/ML (2), Edge (2), Others (4)
Incubation Pipeline Health:
- 17 projects in incubation process during 2025
- Strong representation of emerging technologies (AI/ML, Edge, Platform Engineering)
- Sandbox-to-Incubation time decreasing (average 12-18 months in 2025 vs 24+ months previously)
Domain Distribution Analysis
2025 Graduation Applications by Category
| Category | Count | Projects |
|---|---|---|
| Networking & Security | 3 | Cilium, Istio, Kyverno |
| Observability | 2 | OpenTelemetry, Fluentd |
| AI/ML Infrastructure | 2 | KServe, WasmEdge |
| Edge Computing | 2 | KubeEdge, K3s |
| Storage | 1 | TiKV, Dragonfly |
| Runtime & Platform | 2 | Dapr, VirtIO |
| Developer Tools | 1 | Telepresence |
2025 Incubation Applications by Category
| Category | Count | Projects |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-cluster & Edge | 4 | OCM, kcp, OpenYurt, KubeEdge |
| AI/ML Infrastructure | 3 | HAMi, KServe, OpenFGA |
| Developer Tools | 3 | Lima, Microcks, Telepresence |
| Platform Engineering | 3 | Cozystack, Radius, Kubewarden |
| Storage & Artifacts | 2 | OpenEBS, ORAS |
| Networking & Gateway | 2 | Kgateway, Cilium |
Emerging Technology Trends
AI/ML Acceleration:
- HAMi (Sandbox): GPU virtualization enabling efficient resource sharing
- KServe (Graduated): Production model serving and inference
- OpenFGA (Sandbox): Fine-grained authorization for AI applications
- Trend: Infrastructure projects supporting AI/ML workloads gaining traction
Edge Computing Maturity:
- KubeEdge (Incubating) and OpenYurt (Sandbox) moving toward higher maturity levels
- K3s (Sandbox) graduating as lightweight Kubernetes for edge
- Trend: Edge computing patterns becoming mainstream in CNCF
Platform Engineering:
- Cozystack (Sandbox), Radius (Incubating) emerging as platform abstraction layers
- Focus on developer experience and platform-as-a-product
- Trend: Higher-level abstractions built on Kubernetes
Developer Experience:
- Lima (Sandbox), Microcks (Sandbox), Telepresence (Sandbox) focusing on inner loop development
- API-first development with mocking and testing tools
- Trend: Improving developer productivity in cloud native environments
Cross-Project Integration Patterns
High Integration Projects (Referenced by 3+ other projects):
- Kubernetes (Graduated) (referenced by all projects)
- Prometheus (Graduated) (monitoring integration in 12+ projects)
- OpenTelemetry (Incubating) (observability in 8+ projects)
- Istio (Incubating) (service mesh integration in 5+ projects)
Emerging Integration Hubs:
- Kgateway (Sandbox) integrating with Istio, Argo Rollouts, OpenTelemetry
- Open Cluster Management (Sandbox) with Argo CD, KubeVela, KubeStellar, Kueue
- HAMi (Sandbox) with Volcano, Koordinator for specialized scheduling
Geographic and Organizational Diversity
Contributor Organizations (Top Contributing Companies):
- Cloud Providers: AWS, Google, Microsoft, Alibaba
- Infrastructure Vendors: Red Hat, VMware, SUSE
- Independent: Strong individual contributor presence
- Regional: Growing contributions from APAC region (China, India, Japan)
Maintainer Diversity Trends:
- Average: 5-10 maintainers per incubating project
- Vendor spread: 3-5 organizations per project (healthy)
- Improvement: Projects demonstrating active maintainer succession
Success Factors for 2025 Transitions
Projects Successfully Transitioning Share:
-
Clear Adopter Evidence
- Public adopter lists with production use cases
- Case studies from enterprise organizations
- Documented adoption levels (dev/test/prod)
-
Strong Security Posture
- OpenSSF Best Practices badges (Passing or higher)
- Completed security self-assessments
- Security audit completion for graduation
- Proactive vulnerability management
-
Active Community Governance
- Regular maintainer additions/rotations
- Documented governance evolution
- Transparent decision-making processes
- Vendor-neutral direction
-
Technical Excellence
- Regular quality releases
- Comprehensive documentation
- Production-grade testing
- Integration with CNCF ecosystem
-
TAG Engagement
- Presentations to relevant TAGs
- General Technical Reviews completed
- Active participation in TAG discussions
- Alignment with TAG recommendations
Challenges and Observations
Common Application Gaps:
- Incomplete security self-assessments (delays graduation)
- Insufficient adopter interview responses
- Governance documentation not reflecting actual practices
- Missing Day 2 operations documentation for graduation
Process Improvements in 2025:
- Clearer readiness triage guides
- Better adopter verification processes
- Streamlined security assessment workflows
- Enhanced post-graduation tracking
2025 Project Statistics Summary
By the Numbers
| Metric | Count |
|---|---|
| Total Projects Moving Levels | 30 |
| Graduation Applications | 13 |
| Incubation Applications | 17 |
| Projects Archived | 13 |
| Approved Graduations | 13 |
| Approved Incubations | ~10+ |
| Average Sandbox Duration | 12-18 months |
| Average Incubation Duration | 18-24 months |
Domain Representation
Most Active Domains in 2025:
- Multi-cluster & Edge Computing - 4 projects
- AI/ML Infrastructure - 3 projects
- Developer Tools & Experience - 3 projects
- Networking & Security - 3 projects
- Platform Engineering - 3 projects
Key Milestones
Q1 2025:
- OpenTelemetry graduation application
- Microcks incubation application
- OpenEBS incubation application
Q2 2025:
- Cilium graduation (approved)
- Istio graduation (approved)
- HAMi incubation application
- Batch archival: 8 projects (Merbridge, Sealer, Teller, DevStream, OpenELB, Nocalhost, SuperEdge, KubeDL)
Q3 2025:
- KServe graduation (approved)
- Open Cluster Management incubation
- Dapr graduation (approved)
- Keptn archived (September)
- Krustlet archived (September)
- Xline archived (September)
Q4 2025:
- ORAS incubation application
- Multiple graduation approvals finalized
- Cozystack and Kgateway incubation applications
- CNI-Genie archived (October)
- Pravega archived (October)
Related Work
- CNCF Archived Projects Report - Detailed archival analysis
- CNCF Project Maturity Levels
- CNCF Landscape - All Projects
- CNCF DevStats - Project Metrics
- TOC Moving Levels Process
References
- @cncf/toc - CNCF Technical Oversight Committee
- @cncf/landscape - CNCF Landscape Repository
- CNCF TOC Graduation Issues
- CNCF TOC Incubation Issues
- CNCF TOC Archival Issues
Associated Issues
| Issue | Project | Type | Status | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1951 | ORAS | Incubation | Open | Link |
| #1916 | Cozystack | Incubation | Open | Link |
| #1913 | Kgateway | Incubation | Open | Link |
| #1909 | kcp | Incubation | Open | Link |
| #1905 | KServe | Graduation | Approved | Link |
| #1884 | OCM | Incubation | Open | Link |
| #1775 | HAMi | Incubation | Open | Link |
| #1552 | Microcks | Incubation | Open | Link |
| #1537 | OpenEBS | Incubation | Open | Link |
| #1367 | KServe | Graduation | Approved | Link |
Methodology
Data Collection Period: January 1, 2025 - November 9, 2025
Data Sources:
- @cncf/toc repository issues (graduation and incubation applications)
- @cncf/landscape repository for project verification
- CNCF TOC project board for tracking application status
- Individual project repositories for adoption and community data
Analysis Approach:
- Searched all TOC issues with "graduation" in title created in 2025: 13 results
- Searched all TOC issues with "incubation" in title created in 2025: 17 results
- Cross-referenced each project with CNCF Landscape for accuracy
- Verified project details against official TOC issue templates and applications
- Analyzed trends across domains, technologies, and organizational patterns
Scope:
- This report focuses exclusively on projects moving maturity levels in 2025
- Includes both approved and in-progress applications as of the report date
- Statistics reflect the 365-day period from January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025
Limitations:
- Some applications may still be in progress and not yet voted upon
- Adopter information is based on publicly available data
- Exact approval dates may vary for some projects pending final administrative steps
Report Generated: November 9, 2025
Report Version: 2025.11.09
Data Accuracy: Verified against @cncf/toc and @cncf/landscape repositories
Next Update: Q1 2026 (covering full 2025 data)
Note: This report provides a comprehensive snapshot of CNCF project maturity transitions in 2025, demonstrating the health and growth of the cloud native ecosystem.