r8s

r8s — CLI-Powered Automation Engine & kubectl for RKE2 & K3S Bundles with AI (of course)

r8s (pronounced "rates") is The CLI Automation Engine for RKE2 & K3S Triage.

Stop scrolling through thousands of text files. r8s turns static support bundles into a live, queryable environment. It combines kubectl muscle memory with an AI-driven analysis engine, allowing you to validate, triage, and resolve issues before you even open a log file.

It's not just a viewer. It's a pipeline-ready tool designed for First Response automation. It is the log bundle swiss army knife with lasers. 🔦

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🚀 Installation

Linux / macOS:

# Download the latest release automatically
LATEST_VERSION=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/Rancheroo/r8s/releases/latest | grep '"tag_name":' | sed -E 's/.*"([^"]+)".*/\1/')
OS=$(uname -s | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')
ARCH=$(uname -m | sed 's/x86_64/amd64/')

curl -L -o r8s "https://github.com/Rancheroo/r8s/releases/download/${LATEST_VERSION}/r8s-${LATEST_VERSION}-${OS}-${ARCH}"
chmod +x r8s
sudo mv r8s /usr/local/bin/

Docker (Coming Soon):

🐳 Help Wanted: We are looking for a contributor to containerize r8s for CI/CD usage. This is a Great First Issue!

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⚡ Quick Start

Experience r8s in 60 seconds.

1. Collect a Support Bundle

Use the official Rancher log collector tool:

• Rancher Log Collector (Script)

2. Validate the Bundle

Ensure the customer provided a complete and valid bundle before you start.

r8s validate ./support-bundle/
# Output: ✓ Bundle validated (RKE2, 100% complete)

3. Analyze the Bundle

Instantly detect 19+ common failure patterns (CrashLoops, OOMs, expired certs).

r8s analyze ./support-bundle/
# Output:
# 🔴 [CRITICAL] Certificate Expired: serving-kube-apiserver.crt
# 🔴 [CRITICAL] CrashLoopBackOff: rancher-webhook-5d9b7 (Restarts: 5)

4. Ask Questions in Plain English (BETA)

No need to grep. Just ask.

⚠️ Beta Feature: This feature is experimental. Verify results manually.

r8s ask ./support-bundle/ "why is nginx crashing?"
r8s ask ./support-bundle/ "show me all expired certificates"

5. Explore like kubectl

Navigate the static bundle using familiar commands.

# List pods in a namespace
r8s get pods ./support-bundle/ -n cattle-system

# View logs (automatically finds the right file)
r8s logs ./support-bundle/ rancher-webhook-5d9b7

# Describe a resource
r8s describe pod ./support-bundle/ rancher-webhook-5d9b7

6. Integrate & Automate

Output JSON for your CI/CD pipelines or scripts.

# Extract critical issues
r8s analyze ./support-bundle/ --format=json | jq '.issues[] | select(.severity=="critical")'

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✨ Key Features

• Offline First: Works on air-gapped machines. No cluster access required.
• Zero Data Leaks: All analysis is local. No data sent to the cloud.
• kubectl Muscle Memory: Use get, logs, describe exactly as you know them.
• AI Pattern Detection: Automatically finds etcd quorum loss, CNI failures, OOMKilled, and more.
• CI/CD Ready: Exit codes and JSON output make automation easy.

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🔥 First Response & Automation

r8s is designed to shift left. Use it to automate triage workflows.

1. Auto-Validate Incoming Tickets Reject invalid bundles automatically before an engineer even looks at them.

if ! r8s validate ./bundle/; then
  echo "Please upload a complete support bundle."
  exit 1
fi

2. Auto-Triage Critical Issues Pipe analysis results directly to your ticketing system or Slack.

r8s analyze ./bundle/ --format=json | jq -r '.issues[] | select(.severity=="critical") | .summary' | \
  while read issue; do
    slack-send "🚨 Critical Issue Detected: $issue"
  done

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📚 Documentation

• CLI Reference
• Bundle Format Guide
• Architecture
• Contributing

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