OpenChoreo, the open-source internal developer platform built on Kubernetes, has shipped its 1.0 release and been accepted into the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Sandbox. The project originated as the open-source counterpart to WSO2's commercial Choreo SaaS platform, and is designed to give engineering teams a complete foundation for running workloads on Kubernetes without requiring them to build it themselves.

It includes a Backstage-powered developer portal, built-in CI/CD, GitOps workflows, observability, and what the project calls a programmable control plane. That control plane sits at the centre of the architecture and translates high-level abstractions into Kubernetes manifests, reconciling runtime state back into the same abstractions so developers can reason about their applications without working directly with Kubernetes primitives.

"Rather than stitching together a dozen tools yourself, OpenChoreo gives your team a production-ready foundation to build on."
-- Sameera Jayasoma, Distinguished Engineer, WSO2 (openchoreo.dev)

The architecture is split into planes: an Experience Plane for developer and SRE interaction; a Control Plane for translating abstractions into cluster configuration; a Data Plane where workloads run; and an Observability Plane for metrics, logs, and traces. An optional CI Plane handles builds using cloud native Buildpacks and Argo Workflows. Sameera Jayasoma, who leads the project at WSO2 and presented the platform architecture at WSO2Con Asia 2025, describes the separation as deliberate: the platform separates concerns rather than stacking tools on top of one another.

The CNCF accepted OpenChoreo on 6 January 2026. According to the CNCF project page, it now has 785 contributors across 240 contributing organisations, with 694 GitHub stars. The project recorded its first commit in January 2025, showing a rapid progression from initial commit to CNCF acceptance in less than a year.

"OpenChoreo is being built to treat AI agents as first-class participants."
-- Sameera Jayasoma, Distinguished Engineer, WSO2 (openchoreo.dev)

The 1.0 release includes four notable features. Platform engineers can define and extend abstractions through component types and traits without writing low-level Kubernetes controllers. The platform exposes Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers so that AI agents can create and deploy components, manage configurations, and reason about platform state. A built-in SRE agent analyses logs, metrics, and traces using LLMs to surface likely root causes of incidents. And GitOps support, handled under the hood by FluxCD, is a first-class interaction model from day one. The OpenChoreo console is built directly on Backstage, meaning organisations that already run a Backstage portal can install OpenChoreo as a set of plugins rather than replacing their existing setup.

The project enters a space with several similar competing tools. KubriX launched in August 2025 with a similar premise: a ready-to-use IDP built from established tools, including Argo CD, Backstage, and Kyverno, aimed at teams that want a foundation without years of integration work. KubriX's developer advocate, Artem Lajko, identified a common industry problem: :platforms that are complex and require teams to make sweeping architectural choices before they can begin. KubriX addresses this with an opinionated stack; OpenChoreo addresses it with a programmable control plane that platform engineers can extend without forking. Meanwhile, Crossplane graduated from the CNCF in November 2025, reinforcing Kubernetes as the substrate on which control-plane-style platforms are increasingly built.

Reception outside the project's own community has been measured. A Hacker News thread from March 2026 attracted limited discussion, with the project's own submission noting that OpenChoreo "does not hide K8s" -- a distinction from platforms that abstract Kubernetes entirely out of the developer's view. On Reddit, an r/kubernetes thread from November 2025 described the platform as one designed to help platform engineering teams reduce complexity and provide self-service workflows without building everything from scratch.

The modular design is one area the project is clearly betting on for differentiation. API gateway support in 1.0 includes Kong, Envoy, Kgateway, and Traefik. Deployment topologies range from a single cluster with namespace isolation up to fully separated multi-cluster production setups. Jayasoma has stated the intention to engage with ongoing discussions in the CNCF ecosystem about what developer platforms for Kubernetes should look like, rather than positioning OpenChoreo as a finished answer.

The project is available at github.com/openchoreo/openchoreo.