Tekton — Prerequisites

What to Know Before Starting Tekton

Tekton is deeply Kubernetes-native — every pipeline step runs as a real pod, and there's no separate CI server to abstract that away. Strong Kubernetes fundamentals matter more here than for a CI tool with its own dedicated runtime.

Required (Must Have)

1. Solid Kubernetes Fundamentals

bash

kubectl get pods, kubectl logs, kubectl describe
kubectl apply -f

Tekton's core objects (Task, Pipeline, PipelineRun, Trigger) are all Kubernetes CRDs, and a running PipelineRun is literally a set of pods — debugging a failed pipeline step means debugging a pod, using the exact same kubectl logs/kubectl describe workflow as any other Kubernetes workload.

2. Container/Docker Basics

Every Tekton Task step runs inside a container image — you need to understand what a container image is and why a step's behavior depends on which image it runs in.

3. YAML Comfort

All Tekton objects are YAML CRDs — the same baseline comfort needed for any Kubernetes-native tool.

Nice to Have (Speeds Up Learning)

Prior CI/CD Concept Exposure

If you've used Jenkins or GitHub Actions before, the concepts (pipeline, step, trigger) transfer directly — Overview's own framing is the fastest on-ramp: a Task is like a Kubernetes Job, a Pipeline chains Tasks the way a Jenkins pipeline chains stages.

Familiarity With Persistent Volumes

Module topics on Workspace (shared storage between Tasks) will make more sense with basic PersistentVolume/PersistentVolumeClaim familiarity, though it's learnable within the guide without prior exposure.

OpenShift Awareness (Optional)

Tekton is deeply integrated with OpenShift Pipelines (Red Hat's distribution) — not required, but useful context if your target environment is OpenShift specifically.

What You Do NOT Need

•A dedicated CI server or agent infrastructure — Tekton has no central server; everything runs as pods on the cluster you already have

•Jenkins or Groovy knowledge, despite the conceptual "chain of steps" similarity

•Prior Tekton Dashboard experience — it's an optional add-on, not required to use Tekton

Time Estimate

If you have the prerequisites above:

•Fundamentals: 1-2 days

•Intermediate + Advanced: 4-6 days

•Job-ready (comfortable with Tasks, Pipelines, Triggers, and supply-chain provenance via Tekton Chains): 2-3 weeks

Start Here

Go to the Installation section to install Tekton Pipelines onto a cluster, then proceed to Fundamentals.