metrics-server

metrics-server (Kubernetes) aggregates and exposes resource metrics (CPU/memory) for Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) and related autoscaling/metrics consumers via the Kubernetes Metrics API (/apis/metrics.k8s.io).

Evaluated Apr 04, 2026 (16d ago)

Homepage ↗ Repo ↗ Infrastructure kubernetes metrics autoscaling hpa infrastructure

⚙ Agent Friendliness

/ 100

Can an agent use this?

🔒 Security

/ 100

Is it safe for agents?

⚡ Reliability

/ 100

Does it work consistently?

Score Breakdown

⚙ Agent Friendliness

MCP Quality

Documentation

Error Messages

Auth Simplicity

Rate Limits

🔒 Security

TLS Enforcement

Auth Strength

Scope Granularity

Dep. Hygiene

Secret Handling

Security primarily depends on Kubernetes RBAC and network access to kubelets/Kubernetes API. metrics-server should be deployed with least-privilege service account permissions; avoid overly broad RBAC. TLS is typically used via Kubernetes API server and kubelet endpoints depending on cluster configuration.

⚡ Reliability

Uptime/SLA

Version Stability

Breaking Changes

Error Recovery

Best When

You need Kubernetes resource metrics for autoscaling and other cluster components and want the lightweight aggregated Metrics API.

Avoid When

You require long-term metric retention, high-cardinality analytics, or a complete monitoring solution.

Use Cases

• Enable HPA based on CPU/memory utilization
• Provide Kubernetes Metrics API for components that rely on aggregated pod/node resource metrics
• Support dashboards/operations tooling that query metrics.k8s.io

Not For

• A full monitoring/observability stack (logs, traces, long-term metrics storage)
• High-cardinality or business-metric analytics
• Direct Prometheus-like time-series scraping requirements without an external adapter

Interface

REST API

Yes

GraphQL

gRPC

MCP Server

SDK

Webhooks

Authentication

Methods: Kubernetes API server authentication/authorization (RBAC)

OAuth: No Scopes: No

Authentication is typically handled by Kubernetes (service accounts + RBAC) rather than a standalone OAuth/API-key system.

Pricing

Free tier: No

Requires CC: No

Open-source software typically self-hosted; any 'cost' is infrastructure/operational effort.

Agent Metadata

Pagination

none

Idempotent

False

Retry Guidance

Not documented

Known Gotchas

⚠ Relies on Kubernetes API availability and RBAC permissions; failures may surface as HTTP 403/401/5xx from the API server
⚠ Metrics can be missing/lagged if scraping/aggregation fails or kubelets are not reachable
⚠ HPA requires correct metrics API availability and suitable permissions

Alternatives

Prometheus + adapter (e.g., Prometheus Adapter for Kubernetes custom metrics) Cloud provider metrics/APIs (where applicable) Custom metrics adapters (e.g., for application-level metrics)

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API endpoint ↗ Agent guide ↗ Report inaccuracy

Scores are editorial opinions as of 2026-04-04.