# Goldilocks — Right-Size Kubernetes Resource Requests

> Goldilocks is a Kubernetes utility by Fairwinds that uses the Vertical Pod Autoscaler to generate resource request and limit recommendations, helping teams optimize costs and prevent OOM kills.

## Install

Save in your project root:

# Goldilocks — Right-Size Kubernetes Resource Requests

## Quick Use
```bash
# Install via Helm
helm repo add fairwinds-stable https://charts.fairwinds.com/stable
helm install goldilocks fairwinds-stable/goldilocks --namespace goldilocks --create-namespace
# Label a namespace to enable recommendations
kubectl label namespace default goldilocks.fairwinds.com/enabled=true
```

## Introduction
Goldilocks creates VPA (Vertical Pod Autoscaler) objects for workloads in labeled namespaces, then presents the resulting resource recommendations through a web dashboard. It helps teams find the right CPU and memory requests — not too high (wasting money), not too low (risking OOM kills).

## What Goldilocks Does
- Automatically creates VPA objects in recommend-only mode for labeled namespaces
- Collects CPU and memory recommendations from VPA for each container
- Displays recommendations in a web dashboard organized by namespace and workload
- Highlights over-provisioned and under-provisioned containers
- Supports both guaranteed and burstable QoS class recommendations

## Architecture Overview
Goldilocks consists of two components: a controller that watches namespaces for the enabled label and creates corresponding VPA objects in recommendation mode, and a dashboard that reads VPA status recommendations and renders them in a web UI. The VPA recommender (installed separately) analyzes historical resource usage from metrics-server to produce the actual recommendations.

## Self-Hosting & Configuration
- Deploy via Helm chart with the VPA recommender as a prerequisite
- Label namespaces with goldilocks.fairwinds.com/enabled=true to opt in
- Exclude specific workloads with goldilocks.fairwinds.com/enabled=false labels
- Access the dashboard via port-forward or Ingress on port 8080
- Configure the controller to use existing VPA objects instead of creating new ones

## Key Features
- Namespace-scoped opt-in via labels for gradual rollout
- Dashboard shows lower bound, target, upper bound, and uncapped recommendations
- Works in recommend-only mode: never changes running workloads
- Compatible with any Kubernetes cluster running VPA and metrics-server
- Low overhead: the controller is lightweight and the dashboard is read-only

## Comparison with Similar Tools
- **VPA (standalone)** — provides recommendations via kubectl; Goldilocks adds a visual dashboard and namespace automation
- **Kubecost** — full cost monitoring platform; Goldilocks focuses specifically on resource right-sizing
- **KRR (Robusta)** — CLI-based recommendation tool using Prometheus; Goldilocks uses VPA and provides a web dashboard
- **Keda** — event-driven horizontal scaling; Goldilocks recommends vertical resource sizing
- **Requests Advisor (Sysdig)** — commercial right-sizing feature; Goldilocks is open source and self-hosted

## FAQ
**Q: Does Goldilocks change my resource requests automatically?**
A: No. Goldilocks runs VPA in recommend-only mode. You review and apply recommendations manually.

**Q: Do I need VPA installed first?**
A: Yes. Goldilocks requires the VPA recommender component to generate resource recommendations.

**Q: How long before recommendations stabilize?**
A: VPA typically needs several days of metrics history to produce stable recommendations. Initial estimates appear within hours.

**Q: Can I use Goldilocks without the dashboard?**
A: Yes. The controller creates VPA objects whose recommendations you can read via kubectl get vpa.

## Sources
- https://github.com/FairwindsOps/goldilocks
- https://goldilocks.docs.fairwinds.com

---
Source: https://tokrepo.com/en/workflows/b5f41445-3c0d-11f1-9bc6-00163e2b0d79
Author: AI Open Source