[chansoo-calico]

Why are the changes needed?

app/internal/k8s previously required Knative Serving (serving.knative.dev/v1 Service) and a Knative ingress controller (Istio/Kourier) to deploy and manage AppService / InternalAppService (app_env) workloads. On standard Kubernetes clusters (such as GKE without Knative installed), AppService could not start or deploy apps because the serving.knative.dev/v1 CRDs and controller were absent.

What changes were proposed in this pull request?

• Replace serving.knative.dev/v1 Service management in app/internal/k8s, flytestdlib/app/app_scheme.go, and manager/cmd/components.go with native Kubernetes apps/v1 Deployment and core/v1 Service (ClusterIP) resources.
• Propagate K8sPod metadata labels and annotations onto the Deployment pod template (filtering out job-only kueue.x-k8s.io/queue-name labels) and stamp flyte.org/managed=true and flyte.org/project on app replica pods for flyte-task-pod-identity admission policies and the executor pod cache.
• Substitute {{.rawOutputDataPrefix}} in container Command and Args for fserve app containers.
• Support path-based BaseDomain URLs (when BaseDomain contains /, e.g. https://<host>/apps/<service-name>/) in PublicIngress in addition to subdomain-based URLs.
• Update app/internal/k8s/app_client_test.go to test Deployment + Service lifecycle, pod template metadata propagation, {{.rawOutputDataPrefix}} substitution, and path-based PublicIngress.

How was this patch tested?

Ran unit tests and built ./manager/cmd/:

go test -v ./app/... ./flytestdlib/app/...
go build ./manager/cmd/

Check all the applicable boxes

• I updated the documentation accordingly.
• All new and existing tests passed.
• All commits are signed-off.

[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

Missing native-resource permissions and public routing block standard installations, while serving and rendering regressions remain unresolved.

9 open issues

• Add native resource RBAC permissions to both charts · New
• Preserve or reject unsupported autoscaling settings · New
• Add default readiness probes to serving containers · New
• Preserve public routing for Deployment-backed apps · New
• Resolve duplicate environment variables with last-value-wins · New
• Deep-copy pod specs before placeholder substitution · New
• Preserve or reject unsupported request timeout settings · New
• Select Service port from the named primary container · New
• Gate ACTIVE and FAILED status on current rollout · New

What changed in this PR

Replaces the app controller’s Knative Serving resources with native Kubernetes Deployments and Services so app workloads can run on clusters without Knative.

Changes:

• Migrates resource lifecycle, watches, status mapping, and scheme registration to native Kubernetes types.
• Propagates pod metadata, renders raw-output placeholders, and adds path-based public URL formatting.
• Updates lifecycle tests and adds metadata, placeholder, and URL coverage.

File	Description
manager/​cmd/​components.go	Registers Deployment types during manager setup.
flytestdlib/​app/​app_scheme.go	Registers native app and core Kubernetes types.
app/​internal/​k8s/​app_client.go	Implements Deployment/Service management and updated pod and URL handling.
app/​internal/​k8s/​app_client_test.go	Adapts tests to native resources and covers new behavior.

_{Review effort: Balanced}

[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

Existing apps lack a migration path, and listening-port changes can interrupt traffic during deployment updates.

6 open issues

• Service port changes interrupt traffic during rollout · New
• Legacy Knative apps become undiscoverable after upgrade · New
• Preserve public routing for Deployment-backed apps
• Preserve or reject unsupported autoscaling settings
• Add native resource RBAC permissions to both charts
• Preserve or reject unsupported request timeout settings

5 resolved since last review

• Add default readiness probes to serving containers
• Gate ACTIVE and FAILED status on current rollout
• Select Service port from the named primary container
• Deep-copy pod specs before placeholder substitution
• Resolve duplicate environment variables with last-value-wins

_{Review effort: Balanced}

[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

Legacy Service adoption, named-port rewriting, and path-based URL port handling introduce unresolved compatibility regressions.

3 open issues

• Legacy-owned Services are modified without migration · New
• Path-based URLs omit the configured ingress port · New
• Port renaming breaks probe and lifecycle hook references · New

6 resolved since last review

• Legacy Knative apps become undiscoverable after upgrade
• Service port changes interrupt traffic during rollout
• Preserve public routing for Deployment-backed apps
• Preserve or reject unsupported autoscaling settings
• Add native resource RBAC permissions to both charts
• Preserve or reject unsupported request timeout settings

_{Review effort: Balanced}

[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

Port-reference rewriting can redirect health checks, and stopped-state updates can remove the marker needed for accurate status reporting.

2 open issues

• Preserve app-stopped label when redeploying STOPPED specs · New
• Resolve conflicting probe ports before renaming serving ports · New

3 resolved since last review

• Legacy-owned Services are modified without migration
• Port renaming breaks probe and lifecycle hook references
• Path-based URLs omit the configured ingress port

_{Review effort: Balanced}

[Copilot]

🔵 Needs a closer look

Rollout status can report ACTIVE while only old replicas are ready and replacement replicas remain unavailable.

No open issues 🎉

2 resolved since last review

• Resolve conflicting probe ports before renaming serving ports
• Preserve app-stopped label when redeploying STOPPED specs

_{Review effort: Balanced}