{"id":"lizhenliang-metrics-server","name":"metrics-server","af_score":46.5,"security_score":64.8,"reliability_score":36.2,"what_it_does":"metrics-server is a Kubernetes add-on that aggregates resource metrics (such as CPU and memory) from kubelets and exposes them to the Kubernetes API (commonly used by HPA/VPA and kubectl top).","best_when":"Used inside a Kubernetes cluster where kubelet access to the aggregator can be secured, and where you need the Kubernetes Metrics API for autoscaling and troubleshooting.","avoid_when":"You cannot securely grant the metrics-server access to kubelet stats endpoints, or when you require a full metrics/alerting stack rather than the Kubernetes Metrics API.","last_evaluated":"2026-04-04T19:54:08.448659+00:00","has_mcp":false,"has_api":true,"auth_methods":["Kubernetes RBAC (service account permissions to read metrics/metrics.k8s.io API)","Kubelet authentication/authorization as configured for metrics-server to scrape node stats (commonly via TLS and kubelet endpoints)"],"has_free_tier":false,"known_gotchas":["metrics-server depends on kubelet access; common failures are TLS/auth/connectivity issues to kubelets","Kubernetes version/metrics.k8s.io API compatibility can affect behavior across clusters","If metrics are missing/empty, downstream autoscaling may not work; agents may need to check logs and APIService conditions rather than only request failures"],"error_quality":0.0}