Paqtra

What's new

Full history: CHANGELOG.md.

Why Paqtra

Paqtra is observe-first. Flows come from Hubble; node-local enrichment may read the BPF map inventory. Enforcement stays with Cilium: policy changes go through CiliumNetworkPolicy (CNP), never through Paqtra's own datapath.

[Capabilities at a glance: Observe, Investigate, Secure, Operate]

Paqtra vs Hubble UI

[Paqtra vs Hubble UI: from live flows to a verdict you can act on]

Paqtra does not replace Hubble; it reads Hubble's flows through Hubble Relay and builds on them.

See it live

[Paqtra live demo]

Captured against a live lab cluster with Cilium and Hubble. Full tour on the docs site gallery.

[Paqtra dashboard — Overview]

Observe

Live Hubble flows with verdict coloring and WebSocket streaming, a service map and an observed-traffic topology built from real flows. Real L7 DNS query/rcode/latency when Cilium DNS visibility is on; L4-only never invents SERVFAIL. Capabilities →

Per-second node metrics next to the flows: CPU, memory, disks, interfaces, TCP, conntrack, pod cgroups, process groups (by comm only) and annotated apps (nginx, Redis, Envoy, CoreDNS, etcd, any Prometheus endpoint), with live canvas charts, per-dimension anomaly detection, "what changed here?" correlation and Netdata-style metric alerts that notify but never apply policy. paqtra metrics … covers the same from the terminal. Metrics → · Alerts → · Anomalies → · Apps →

[Hubble flows with verdict coloring]

[Service map from observed flows]

[Observed-traffic topology]

Investigate

Ask "why can't A reach B?" and get an answer with observed, inferred or unavailable evidence labels. Click Why denied? on any dropped flow. Investigate → · Root cause →

[Path investigation — why can't A reach B?]

[Drop analytics by Cilium reason]

[Diagnostics]

The dashboard also includes real kernel eBPF data views powered by bpftool: conntrack tables, policy maps, IP cache, LB maps and drop analytics. All read-only. eBPF integration →

[eBPF map and program inventory (read-only)]

Secure

A visual rule builder, a YAML editor, ML-powered AutoPolicy and an evidence-backed simulator, all applied as CiliumNetworkPolicy through the Kubernetes API. Cilium enforces. AutoPolicy → · Simulator →

[Policies]

Also included: compliance audits (CIS, NIST, SOC 2), anomaly detection, chaos engineering, canary deployments and multi-cluster views. Everything Paqtra does →

MCP

paqtra-mcp is a stdio Model Context Protocol server that lets an AI agent (Claude Desktop, Hermes Agent, any MCP client) read a running Paqtra deployment. It exposes 39 tools, all read-only with respect to the cluster: no policy apply, edit or delete, no chaos, no healer fix, no cluster sync, no flow-store purge. The two investigate tools store an evidence bundle in the API and nothing else. Every call is made with your own API credentials, so RBAC and namespace scoping apply.

• Registry name: io.github.zyvorai/paqtra (published from the v2.2.3 release)
• Image: ghcr.io/zyvorai/paqtra-mcp:2.2.3
• Configuration: PAQTRA_URL, plus PAQTRA_TOKEN or PAQTRA_USERNAME / PAQTRA_PASSWORD; use a viewer-role account.

Setup, tool scope and the protocol: docs/mcp-integration.md.

How it fits together

[Hubble in, answers out, Cilium still decides]

Ports are the Helm chart defaults in chart/values.yaml. Architecture in depth: docs/architecture.md · docs/web-architecture.md.

What Paqtra never does

[Paqtra observes, Cilium decides — what it reads, what it never does]

Hard boundaries, enforced by review and repeated in AGENTS.md:

• Never writes Cilium BPF maps or pins over cil_* programs.
• Never attaches, detaches or replaces Cilium (or Netra) programs. Attachment inventory is read-only classification (cil_* / netra_* / other).
• The agent observes, reports health and inventories. Policy apply goes through Cilium CRDs.
• Does not collect application payloads, argv/cmdline, or Secret contents.
• Does not introduce a second CNI or compete with Cilium's datapath.
• Prefers Hubble for flows; uses maps for node-local enrichment only.

Details: docs/cilium-brotherhood.md and docs/ebpf-integration.md.

Quickstart

Prerequisites: a Kubernetes cluster and a kube-context. Cilium with Hubble Relay is required too; paqtra install --with-cilium sets it up if it is missing.

# Install the CLI (downloads, verifies and installs the latest release)curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zyvorai/paqtra/main/install.sh | sh   # or: brew install zyvorai/tap/paqtra
# Install Paqtra into the current kube-context (the Helm chart is built in)paqtra install            # add --with-cilium if the cluster has no Cilium yetpaqtra status --waitpaqtra ui                 # open the console
# Something wrong?paqtra doctor

Build from source, Docker, Helm, environment variables and testing: Install guide · CLI reference: docs/cli.md.

Paqtra vs PacketWolf

[Paqtra vs PacketWolf — what the commercial platform adds]

Paqtra is the free, Apache-2.0 community edition. PacketWolf is Zyvor's commercial platform on the same Cilium-native foundation, for teams that need to go from seeing the network to securing and operating it.

Full breakdown: docs/paqtra-vs-packetwolf.md. For a demo, a trial or pricing, book a demo, start a 30-day PoC or contact [email protected] or visit zyvor.dev.

Paqtra or Netra?

Netra is the independent eBPF sibling: its own programs and maps under /sys/fs/bpf/netra, with leased emergency control. The two must not fight.

Who owns what: Suite placement · Cilium boundaries.

Security

JWT authentication (HS256, 32+ char secret) with no default credentials, RBAC-ready middleware, input validation on all kubectl-bound fields, an explicit CORS origin allowlist, rate limiting and confirmation dialogs on destructive operations.

Report vulnerabilities through SECURITY.md. Deeper reading: docs/client/security-whitepaper.html.

Documentation map

Maturity

Paqtra is at 2.2.3 (CHANGELOG.md). Its boundary is fixed by design: it observes, investigates and authors CiliumNetworkPolicy; Cilium enforces. Kernel attribution, custom eBPF probes, threat detection and containment are not part of Paqtra; they are in PacketWolf (see above).

Part of the Zyvor stack

→ zyvor.dev

Support

Free under Apache-2.0. If it helps you, you can donate any amount you like: https://rzp.io/rzp/utwdYh3. A donation is voluntary and supports development and maintenance. It is not a purchase: it buys no support, SLA, features, priority or license, and it is not tax-deductible (Zyvor AI Labs Private Limited is a company, not a charity). Zyvor Enterprise (supported releases, SLAs, a named contact and enterprise features) is separate: [email protected].

License

Paqtra is free and open source under the Apache License 2.0 (see NOTICE). Contributions are accepted under the same license.

Zyvor Enterprise adds what production teams ask for: supported releases, deployment and upgrade guidance, priority incident triage, a named technical contact and 24x7 critical intake. Plans and terms: docs/SUBSCRIPTION-MODEL.md · Pricing · [email protected].

Report vulnerabilities privately per SECURITY.md. Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md.

Built on Cilium, Hubble, Ratatui, Axum, React and Tailwind CSS.