docs(research): full research set — use-case & shape, market/form-factor, identity, integrations - #16
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…ntity, integrations Salvage and synthesis of the research pass (workstreams A–E). Four cited reports under docs/research/: - USE-CASE-AND-SHAPE.md — synthesis: executive answer, recommended form factor, a ruthlessly prioritized capability roadmap (wedge / fast-follow / later / not-now), a carry/discard/net-new table vs devops-portal, and concrete CHARTER/ARCHITECTURE/ROADMAP/EPICS edits. - market-and-form-factor.md — practitioner pains (global, China, India), the Lens/form-factor story, the OSS-and-paid tool landscape, cost, and multi-cloud (workstreams A/B/C/F/G). - identity-connections-security.md — the four connection modes, brokered-access prior art, short-lived-credential consensus, custody, and the supply-chain/audit bar (workstream D). - integrations-and-ai-governance.md — connector-framework design, per-tool integration surfaces, MCP protocol state, and the governed-agent white space (workstream E). Every load-bearing claim carries a primary-source URL.
This was referenced Jul 9, 2026
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What this is
The complete research set answering: what should Sith be so DevOps/Platform/SRE/MLOps engineers reach for it by default, and what form should it take? Four cited reports under
docs/research/, salvaged and synthesised from a research pass across five workstreams (identity/connections/security, connectors/MCP/AI-governance, global+China+India pains, tool/cost landscape, and form factor/DX). Every load-bearing claim carries a primary-source URL;devops-portalis treated as lessons-learned, not a template.USE-CASE-AND-SHAPE.mdmarket-and-form-factor.mdidentity-connections-security.mdintegrations-and-ai-governance.mdThe one-paragraph answer
Sith should be the tool an engineer reaches for the moment they operate more than one Kubernetes cluster — first as a fast local client that shows their whole fleet from the kubeconfigs already on their laptop, then, for a team, as a self-hosted control plane that lets many operators and their AI agents see and act across that fleet without anyone holding standing admin credentials. It is one product with two faces on one shared engine: a single-user local "fleet IDE" that installs in one command with no account, no server, and no telemetry; and a self-hosted hub that federates the same fleet over outbound-only OCM minions, gates every write through an external policy decision point (Ardur), and records who did what and why. The position Sith owns is governed action across a fleet — typed, signed, approval-gated cluster operations applied identically to humans and to AI agents, which the research found empty across every incumbent. The thing that gets it adopted is the local mode, because the one empty OSS slot is a no-account, no-telemetry, aggregated multi-cluster client (k9s is one-context-at-a-time; Headlamp is per-cluster-centric; Lens has an account wall; the only tool that aggregates clusters, Aptakube, is closed and paid), and every install is a hub candidate.
Recommended form factor
One Go binary, one embedded web frontend, three run modes:
sith(CLI),sith ui(local single-user fleet IDE, kubeconfig-direct, no account/telemetry),sith hub(the same UI served multi-user with OCM minions + governance). Cache-first render from a local informer/watch cache (never spinner-first). Tauri desktop shell — not Electron — as a fast-follow. The local mode's centre of gravity is the fleet (aggregation, cross-cluster correlation, staleness), not the pod — it is not another single-cluster console.Prioritized roadmap (anti-sprawl)
gitops.open-prvia Ardur · no-god-key custody + cosign/SLSA-L2/SBOM.exec/free-form apply/Secret/RBAC mutation · running SPIRE.Concrete plan edits (in
USE-CASE-AND-SHAPE.md§6)Notes for the reviewer
docs/research-usecase) answers the same "use-case & shape" question as a single file with a related-but-different thesis (invert to a local-first CLI/TUI at day-0, OCM/hub strictly day-N). This PR is the full 4-file research set with the complete evidence base and a "one binary, two faces, shared engine" framing. Both touchdocs/research/USE-CASE-AND-SHAPE.md, so they will conflict on that path — the two lanes should be reconciled before both merge (pick one synthesis, or merge this set and fold docs(research): use-case & shape — what Sith should be to become a default tool #15's sharpest points into it).main(../SCOPE.md,../../COMPETITIVE.md,../experiments/M0-ocm-falsification.md, from PRs docs: initial Sith plan — charter, architecture, ADRs, threat model, roadmap, competitive #1/exp(M0): OCM falsification PASS — adopt OCM, delete bespoke-transport scope #13/docs: implementation-epics plan (EPICS.md) #14). They resolve once those lanes land onmain; this matches the convention already used across the planning docs.