Freelens Karpenter Extension

Freelens extension for Karpenter.

A visual interface to monitor Karpenter's resources and the actions it performs.

Born from an idea by Roberto Bandini @robertobandini and Alberto Lunghi @albyrex, who created the first version.

Compatibility

At the moment, this extension is intended for clusters running Karpenter on:

• AWS EKS
• Azure AKS

Features

The extension provides a comprehensive dashboard for monitoring Karpenter's autoscaling behavior across your Kubernetes cluster.

Overview

Displays key performance indicators including:

• Total node count and breakdown by Karpenter-provisioned vs. existing nodes
• Per-pool node distribution with current node claims and nodes
• Resource utilization summaries for memory and CPU across the cluster

Topology

Interactive treemap visualization that organizes nodes by:

• Node pools (color-coded regions)
• Zones and instance types (nested hierarchy)
• Adjustable grouping to explore resource distribution at different levels

Helps identify resource concentration and imbalances across your infrastructure.

Node Classes

Displays all configured NodeClass resources (AWS EC2NodeClass or Azure AKSNodeClass) with:

• NodeClass names and providers (AWS or Azure)
• Associated NodePool references
• Configuration details for each class
• Quick access to related node pools

Scaling Decisions

Real-time event timeline showing Karpenter's scaling actions:

• Provisioning events: When new nodes are created to meet workload demand
• Consolidation events: When Karpenter optimizes node utilization
• Disruption events: When nodes are removed or rescheduled
• Timestamps and detailed event metadata for audit and debugging

Build from the source

Prerequisites

Use NVM or mise-en-place or windows-nvm to install the required Node.js version.

From the root of this repository:

nvm install
# or
mise install
# or
winget install CoreyButler.NVMforWindows
nvm install 22.14.0
nvm use 22.14.0

Install Pnpm:

corepack install
# or
curl -fsSL https://get.pnpm.io/install.sh | sh -
# or
winget install pnpm.pnpm

Build extension

corepack pnpm i
corepack pnpm build
corepack pnpm pack

Install built extension

The tarball for the extension will be placed in the current directory.

In Freelens, navigate to the Extensions list and provide the path to the tarball to be loaded, or drag and drop the extension tarball into the Freelens window. After loading for a moment, the extension should appear in the list of enabled extensions.

License

Copyright (c) 2025-2026 Freelens Authors.

MIT License