Package Management on Kubernetes remains one of the most pressing challenges in the Cloud Native ecosystem. While package management is well-established in desktop and mobile computing, a standardized approach for cloud computing has yet to emerge.

To address this gap, we introduced Glasskube, an open-source package manager under the Apache 2.0 license, with its first release in early 2024. Since then, Glasskube has gained significant traction, accumulating over 2,900 GitHub stars and becoming part of the CNCF landscape.

In this talk, we share the initial assumptions that led to the development of Glasskube and walk through its core internals and features—including package flow, Renovate integration, GitOps-based templating for multi-repository setups, and support for private packages. We will also demonstrate how Glasskube simplifies complex challenges like Kubernetes package dependencies, multi-namespace deployments, and configuration value sharing between packages. Additionally, we will introduce our ArgoCD integration and teaser Apple/PKL (a configuration language) for type-safe GitOps configuration management.

Beyond Glasskube, we will also introduce Distr, a new open-source software distribution platform designed to be the easiest way to distribute enterprise software.

Finally, we will share key learnings from building a package management ecosystem for Kubernetes and discuss what’s next for Glasskube and Distr in the evolving cloud-native landscape.