ttl-operator

A Kubernetes operator that manages time-limited deployments with automatic cleanup.

Description

The TTL Operator extends Kubernetes with a TimedDeployment custom resource that automatically manages the lifecycle of deployments with a configurable time-to-live (TTL). When you create a TimedDeployment resource, the operator creates and manages a child Deployment that runs for the specified TTL duration. After the TTL expires, the operator automatically deletes both the child Deployment and the TimedDeployment resource, providing a clean way to manage temporary or ephemeral workloads.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Go v1.24+
• Docker v24+
• kubectl v1.27+
• Access to a Kubernetes v1.27+ cluster.

kubebuilder init and create API

mkdir ttl-operator && cd ttl-operator

# Initialize the project (using your github handle)
kubebuilder init --domain yourdomain.com --repo github.com/youruser/ttl-operator

Create the API (Group: apps, Version: v1alpha1, Kind: TimedDeployment)

kubebuilder create api --group apps --version v1alpha1 --kind TimedDeployment

To Deploy on the cluster

Build and push your image to the location specified by IMG:

make docker-build docker-push IMG=<some-registry>/ttl-operator:tag

NOTE: This image ought to be published in the personal registry you specified. And it is required to have access to pull the image from the working environment. Make sure you have the proper permission to the registry if the above commands don’t work.

Install the CRDs into the cluster:

make install

Deploy the Manager to the cluster with the image specified by IMG:

make deploy IMG=<some-registry>/ttl-operator:tag

NOTE: If you encounter RBAC errors, you may need to grant yourself cluster-admin privileges or be logged in as admin.

Create instances of your solution You can apply the samples (examples) from the config/samples:

kubectl apply -k config/samples/

NOTE: Ensure that the samples have default values to test it out.

Example: TimedDeployment Manifest

Create a TimedDeployment that runs nginx for 30 seconds:

apiVersion: apps.timeddeployment.gnsalok.com/v1alpha1
kind: TimedDeployment
metadata:
  name: simple-test
spec:
  ttl: 30
  image: nginx:alpine
  replicas: 2
  port: 80

Apply it to your cluster:

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: apps.timeddeployment.gnsalok.com/v1alpha1
kind: TimedDeployment
metadata:
  name: simple-test
spec:
  ttl: 30
  image: nginx:alpine
  replicas: 2
  port: 80
EOF

Watch the deployment:

kubectl get timeddeployments -w
kubectl get deployments -l app.kubernetes.io/name=simple-test

After 30 seconds, the operator will automatically delete the TimedDeployment and its child Deployment.

To Uninstall

Delete the instances (CRs) from the cluster:

kubectl delete -k config/samples/

Delete the APIs(CRDs) from the cluster:

make uninstall

Undeploy the controller from the cluster:

make undeploy

Project Distribution

Following the options to release and provide this solution to the users.

By providing a bundle with all YAML files

1. Build the installer for the image built and published in the registry:

make build-installer IMG=<some-registry>/ttl-operator:tag

NOTE: The makefile target mentioned above generates an 'install.yaml' file in the dist directory. This file contains all the resources built with Kustomize, which are necessary to install this project without its dependencies.

2. Using the installer

Users can just run 'kubectl apply -f ' to install the project, i.e.:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/<org>/ttl-operator/<tag or branch>/dist/install.yaml

By providing a Helm Chart

1. Build the chart using the optional helm plugin

kubebuilder edit --plugins=helm/v2-alpha

2. See that a chart was generated under 'dist/chart', and users can obtain this solution from there.

NOTE: If you change the project, you need to update the Helm Chart using the same command above to sync the latest changes. Furthermore, if you create webhooks, you need to use the above command with the '--force' flag and manually ensure that any custom configuration previously added to 'dist/chart/values.yaml' or 'dist/chart/manager/manager.yaml' is manually re-applied afterwards.

Contributing

We welcome contributions! To contribute to this project:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
3. Make your changes and run tests (make test)
4. Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
5. Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
6. Open a Pull Request

Please ensure all tests pass and follow the existing code style.

NOTE: Run make help for more information on all potential make targets

More information can be found via the Kubebuilder Documentation

License

Copyright 2026.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.