Introducing Serverless Kube Watch Trigger: Declarative Event Triggers for Kubernetes

Today we’re releasing something small, simple, open-source, and surprisingly powerful: serverless-kube-watch-trigger, a Kubernetes Custom Resource Definition that turns cluster events into HTTP calls — directly and declaratively.

No glue scripts. No extra brokers. No complex controllers. Just YAML.

❓ Why We Built It

When working on HariKube, we realized a missing piece: while Kubernetes could scale and orchestrate workloads, there was no simple, built-in way to react to events without writing Go code. Operators work great for stateful loops, but not every use case needs a controller.

We wanted a native, minimal way to say:

“When this Deployment changes, send an HTTP request.”

That’s what serverless-kube-watch-trigger does.

🔌 What It Does

serverless-kube-watch-trigger listens to changes in Kubernetes resources and performs HTTP requests when those changes match defined filters.

You describe what to watch, what to send, and where to send it.

That’s all.

Here’s the full example:

apiVersion: triggers.example.com/v1
kind: HTTPTrigger
metadata:
  name: full-httptrigger-example
  namespace: default
spec:
  resource:
    apiVersion: apps/v1
    kind: Deployment
  namespaces:
    - default
    - kube-system
  labelSelectors:
    - app=frontend
    - tier=prod
  fieldSelectors:
    - metadata.name=my-deployment
  eventTypes:
    - ADDED
    - MODIFIED
    - DELETED
  eventFilter: 'ne .status.availableReplicas 0'
  concurrency: 5
  sendInitialEvents: false
  url:
    static: "https://example.com/hook"
    # template: "https://example.com/hook/{{ .metadata.name }}"
    # service:
    #   name: webhook-svc
    #   namespace: default
    #   portName: http
    #   scheme: http
    #   uri:
    #     template: "/hook/{{ .metadata.name }}"
  method: POST
  auth:
    basicAuth:
      user: ci-bot
      secretKeyRef:
        name: webhook-pass
        key: password
    tls:
      caRef:
        name: webhook-ca
        key: ca.crt
      certRef:
        name: webhook-cert
        key: tls.crt
      keyRef:
        name: webhook-cert
        key: tls.key
      insecureSkipVerify: false
  headers:
    static:
      X-Static-Token: "fixed-token-value"
      X-Cluster-ID: "cluster-001"
    template:
      X-Resource-Name: "{{ .metadata.name }}"
      X-Resource-Namespace: "{{ .metadata.namespace }}"
    fromSecretRef:
      X-Api-Key:
        name: api-secret
        key: api-key
      X-Other-Token:
        name: extra-secrets
        key: token
  body:
    contentType: application/json
    template: |
      {{ toJson . }}
    signature:
      header: X-Signature
      keySecretRef:
        name: sig-key
        key: key
      hmac:
        hashType: SHA512
  delivery:
    timeout: 30s
    retries: 5

Install the controller.

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/HariKube/serverless-kube-watch-trigger/releases/download/beta-v1.0.0-6/bundle.yaml

Configure RBAC and enable deployments for the operator.

apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRoleBinding
metadata:
  name: serverless-kube-watch-trigger-deployment-rolebinding
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: ClusterRole
  name: serverless-kube-watch-trigger-deployment-role
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: serverless-kube-watch-trigger-controller-manager
  namespace: serverless-kube-watch-trigger-system
---
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: serverless-kube-watch-trigger-deployment-role
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - "apps"
  resources:
  - deployments
  verbs:
  - get
  - list
  - watch

Finally apply the custom resource, and whenever a Deployment’s replica count changes, Kubernetes will POST its event as JSON to your endpoint.

⚡ How It Fits Into HariKube

Within the HariKube ecosystem, serverless-kube-watch-trigger acts as the simplest way to build event-driven systems:

• It connects Kubernetes watches directly to functions or APIs.
• It works out of the box with OpenFaaS, Knative, or any HTTP endpoint.
• It uses no custom controller logic — just Kubernetes’ built-in reconciliation.

This aligns with HariKube’s philosophy: let Kubernetes be the platform.

Instead of bolting on more systems, reuse what already exists — RBAC, namespaces, CRDs, and event streams — and keep logic outside the cluster.

🧠 Final Thoughts

Kubernetes has grown into the universal runtime for everything from batch jobs to databases. With HariKube’s data fabric and serverless-kube-watch-trigger’s declarative event hooks, it’s now also becoming the runtime for events and automation.

Small building blocks. Clear contracts. Native integration.

That’s the direction we’re heading.

If you want to try it or contribute, the README in the repository has all the details.

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Sounds interesting? Learn how HariKube unifies different service design strategies into a single hybrid architecture. [→]

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That’s the message! serverless-kube-watch-trigger is a Kubernetes Custom Resource that declaratively turns cluster events (watches) into HTTP calls, enabling simple, no-code automation. This lets you connect Kubernetes resource changes directly to OpenFaaS, Knative, or any webhook, aligning with HariKube’s goal of making Kubernetes the core, event-driven platform without requiring complex operators or external brokers.

Thank you for following along! If you have questions or ideas, please share them—we’d love to hear from you.