Kubernetes Visual Cheat Sheet

Interactive architecture diagram — click or hover any component to inspect responsibilities & traffic flow.

CLIENT (You) kubectl User / CLI CONTROL PLANE (Brain) WORKER NODE (Muscle) Saves State Watches Assigns Node Pod Assign Starts Runs Routes Traffic api-server The Central Hub etcd The Only Truth controller-manager The Core Loop / Fixer scheduler The Matchmaker kubelet Node Captain kube-proxy / CNI Network Router Container Runtime Engine (containerd) Pod App Workload Spec
api-server Control Plane Hub
"The Central Hub"

Exposes the Kubernetes API. All components (kubectl, controllers, scheduler, kubelet) communicate EXCLUSIVELY through the API server.