Hubble Has a Free API — Real-Time Network Observability for Kubernetes

Hubble is Cilium's observability layer that gives you real-time visibility into network flows across your Kubernetes cluster. Think Wireshark for cloud-native — but with L7 protocol awareness and Kubernetes context. Free, open source, and built into Cilium. No extra installation if you already run Cilium. Why Use the Hubble API? Network flow visibility — see every packet between pods, services, and external endpoints L7 protocol awareness — HTTP, gRPC, DNS, and Kafka flow inspection Kubernetes context — flows enriched with pod names, namespaces, labels Network policy debugging — see which policies allow/deny traffic in real time Quick Setup 1. Enable Hubble cilium hubble enable --ui cilium hubble port-forward & 2. Observe Flows via CLI # All flows in the cluster hubble observe # Flows for a specific pod hubble observe --pod default/my-app # Only DNS flows hubble observe --protocol DNS # Only dropped flows (policy denials) hubble observe --verdict DROPPED # HTTP flows with specific meth