cri-tools

April 24, 2026 · View on GitHub

CLI and validation tools for Kubelet Container Runtime Interface (CRI) .

Build Status critest containerd CRI-O Go Report Card

What is the scope of this project?

cri-tools aims to provide a series of debugging and validation tools for Kubelet CRI, which includes:

  • crictl: CLI for kubelet CRI.
  • critest: validation test suites for kubelet CRI.

What is not in scope for this project?

  • Building a new kubelet container runtime based on CRI.
  • Managing pods/containers for CRI-compatible runtimes by end-users, e.g. pods created by crictl may be removed automatically by kubelet because of non-exist on the kube-apiserver.

Compatibility matrix: cri-tools ⬄ Kubernetes

Kubernetes Versioncri-tools Versioncri-tools branch
≥ 1.27.x≥ 1.27.xmaster
≥ 1.16.x ≤ 1.26.x≥ 1.16.x ≤ 1.26.xmaster
1.15.Xv1.15.0release-1.15
1.14.Xv1.14.0release-1.14
1.13.Xv1.13.0release-1.13
1.12.Xv1.12.0release-1.12
1.11.Xv1.11.1release-1.11
1.10.Xv1.0.0-beta.2release-1.10
1.9.Xv1.0.0-alpha.1release-1.9
1.8.Xv0.2release-1.8
1.7.Xv0.1release-1.7

It's recommended to use the same cri-tools and Kubernetes minor version, because new features added to the Container Runtime Interface (CRI) may not be fully supported if they diverge.

cri-tools follows the Kubernetes release cycles with respect to its minor versions (1.x.y). Patch releases (1.x.z) for Kubernetes are not in sync with those from cri-tools, because they are scheduled for each month, whereas cri-tools provides them only if necessary. If a Kubernetes release goes End of Life, then the corresponding cri-tools version can be considered in the same way.

All new minor versions of cri-tools are being created from the master branch, whereas corresponding release-1.x branches will be created if a patch release is planned.

See the roadmap for information about current and future milestones.

Install

Install crictl

VERSION="v1.36.0"
wget https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/releases/download/$VERSION/crictl-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo tar zxvf crictl-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin
rm -f crictl-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Install critest

VERSION="v1.36.0"
wget https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/cri-tools/releases/download/$VERSION/critest-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz
sudo tar zxvf critest-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz -C /usr/local/bin
rm -f critest-$VERSION-linux-amd64.tar.gz

Documentation

Community, discussion, contribution, and support

Learn how to engage with the Kubernetes community on the community page.

You can reach the maintainers of this project at:

Contributing

Interested in contributing? Check out the documentation.

Code of conduct

Participation in the Kubernetes community is governed by the Kubernetes Code of Conduct.