Learn KNATIVE with Real Code Examples

Knative provides a set of components to deploy and manage serverless applications on Kubernetes.

Supports automatic scaling up/down to zero based on workload.

Includes event-driven architecture for reactive applications.

Simplifies routing and traffic splitting for microservices.

Ideal for serverless functions, microservices, and cloud-native applications.

Knative Serving: deploy and manage serverless services

Knative Eventing: event routing and consumption

Auto-scaling and scale-to-zero capabilities

Traffic splitting for versioned deployments

Integration with Kubernetes networking and storage

Service – Knative unit representing your workload

Revision – immutable snapshot of a service version

Configuration – desired state of a service

Route – traffic routing to revisions

Event – triggers that invoke serverless functions

Dockerfile – container image definition

service.yaml – Knative Service manifest

event.yaml – Knative Event source configuration

config/ – optional configuration files

scripts/ – CI/CD and deployment scripts

Package your application into a container image

Create a Knative Service YAML manifest

Apply the manifest to your Kubernetes cluster

Knative automatically creates revisions and routes traffic

Configure event sources to trigger services

Beginner: deploy a simple HTTP service

Intermediate: event-driven services with triggers

Advanced: multi-version traffic splitting

Expert: integrate with cloud-native pipelines and monitoring

Auditor: monitor scaling, metrics, and event flow

Knative vs OpenFaaS: Knative tightly integrates with Kubernetes; OpenFaaS focuses on simplicity and lightweight functions

Knative vs AWS Lambda: Knative runs on Kubernetes; Lambda is managed serverless

Knative vs Argo Workflows: Knative is event-driven; Argo is workflow/orchestration-focused

Knative vs Spring Boot: Knative is serverless; Spring Boot is traditional app framework

Knative vs Quarkus: Knative manages serverless workloads; Quarkus is a Java runtime/framework

2018 – Knative initial release by Google

2019 – Knative Serving and Eventing GA

2020 – Improved autoscaling and event sources

2021 – Integration with cloud providers and Tekton pipelines

2022–2025 – Stabilization, monitoring enhancements, and community growth

Knative Service - represents a serverless workload

Revision - immutable snapshot of a service version

Configuration - desired state of a service

Route - traffic routing to revisions

Broker/Trigger - event routing components