Nine new projects joined the CNCF Sandbox during March–May 2025, spanning AI/ML tooling and alternative workload runtimes. The batch includes: KitOps (AI/ML model packaging with OCI), OpenTofu (community-driven Terraform fork now officially in CNCF after legal delays), kagent (AI agent framework for Kubernetes, accepted in under 6 months from creation), Cadence (Uber's distributed workflow orchestration engine), Hyperlight (Microsoft's Rust-based microVM manager with 1–2ms startup), interLink (Virtual Kubelet abstraction for offloading workloads to HPC/cloud), urunc (OCI-compatible unikernel runtime), kgateway (Envoy-based Kubernetes API gateway formerly known as Gloo), and Cozystack (self-hosted cloud platform on Kubernetes for bare-metal). Go dominates with 8 of 9 projects written in it, and Solo.io contributed two projects. The trend toward diverse container runtimes and practical AI/ML tooling is highlighted.
