The official kube-state-metrics Docker image is published on the Kubernetes registry. This guide covers the official image paths, version pinning best practices, multi-architecture support (arm64), and GitHub release channels.

Official kube-state-metrics Docker Image

Since the migration from GCR to the Kubernetes registry, the canonical image path is:

# Current canonical image (registry.k8s.io)
registry.k8s.io/kube-state-metrics/kube-state-metrics:v2.13.0

# Old GCR path (still works but deprecated for new versions)
k8s.gcr.io/kube-state-metrics/kube-state-metrics:v2.10.0
⚠️
Always pin to a specific version tag in production — never use :latest. The latest tag is updated on every release and can introduce breaking metric name changes.

Version History & Compatibility

VersionKubernetesGoReleased
v2.13.0 1.26–1.31 1.22 Mar 2025 latest
v2.12.0 1.25–1.30 1.21 Nov 2024
v2.11.0 1.24–1.29 1.21 Jul 2024
v2.10.0 1.23–1.28 1.20 Feb 2024
v2.9.2 1.22–1.27 1.19 Oct 2023

kube-state-metrics GitHub Repository

The kube-state-metrics GitHub repository is hosted in the Kubernetes org at github.com/kubernetes/kube-state-metrics. All releases, changelogs, and latest release manifests are published there.

# Install directly from the latest GitHub release
kubectl apply -f \
  https://github.com/kubernetes/kube-state-metrics/releases/latest/download/kube-state-metrics.yaml

# Or pin to a specific version
kubectl apply -f \
  https://github.com/kubernetes/kube-state-metrics/releases/download/v2.13.0/kube-state-metrics.yaml

Multi-Architecture Support (arm64)

kube-state-metrics publishes multi-arch images for both amd64 and arm64. The manifest list at registry.k8s.io automatically selects the correct architecture:

# Pull automatically selects amd64 or arm64
docker pull registry.k8s.io/kube-state-metrics/kube-state-metrics:v2.13.0

# Inspect manifests
docker manifest inspect registry.k8s.io/kube-state-metrics/kube-state-metrics:v2.13.0

This makes kube-state-metrics compatible with Apple Silicon Mac clusters (kind/minikube), AWS Graviton (arm64 EKS nodes), and Raspberry Pi clusters.

Bitnami kube-state-metrics Image

Bitnami publishes a hardened, non-root variant of the kube-state-metrics image:

docker.io/bitnami/kube-state-metrics:2.13.0

The Bitnami image includes security scanning, automated CVE patching, and runs as a non-root user. It is included in the Bitnami Helm charts ecosystem. Functionally identical to the upstream image — same metrics, same flags.

Checking the Running Image Version

# Check the deployed image tag
kubectl get deploy kube-state-metrics -n monitoring \
  -o jsonpath='{.spec.template.spec.containers[0].image}'

# Via the build_info metric
kubectl port-forward svc/kube-state-metrics 8080:8080 -n monitoring
curl -s http://localhost:8080/metrics | grep build_info

The kube_state_metrics_build_info metric includes version, goversion, gitcommit, and builddate labels.

Keeping Up with kube-state-metrics Releases