[Governance] Defining "kcp"

[Christoph Mewes]

Hello everyone,

I recently opened a PR[1] to fix two things about kcp:

* Its casing: kcp should always be lowercase, even in titles and
  beginning of sentences.

* Its meaning: When I was introduced to kcp, I was told it explicitly
  stands for nothing. However over time people have begun calling it
  "Kubernetes for control planes" or "Kubernetes-like control-planes"
  and sometimes potentially even "Kubernetes control planes". Given
  that we want to make strives in documenting and showing kcp to
  people, I think the question "What does kcp stand for?" will come
  up again and again, and we should have a consistent answer.

In today's community call we have narrowed the choices down to

  "Kubernetes-like control-plane" or
  "Kubernetes-like control-planes"

A preliminary inofficial opinion from CNCF was that this would not
violate any trademark rules and as long as we follow our governance
rules, we're free to choose since this is not affecting our product
name per-se.

To that end I would like to put this to a final vote, please respond

.. with 1 for "Kubernetes-like control-plane" (singular)
.. with 2 for "Kubernetes-like control-planes" (plural)

Thank you for your participation.

Kind regards,
   Christoph (@xrstf)

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[1] https://github.com/kcp-dev/kcp/pull/3665

[Marko Mudrinić]

I'm okay with either, maybe inclining more towards 1.

Thank you for bringing this up!

Marko

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[Mangirdas Judeikis]

I'm going for 1. I kinda always was under Impression it was like this already :D

MJ

 

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[Olalekan Odukoya]

I go with Kubernetes-like control-plane

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[Olalekan Odukoya]

ps: Just googling Kubernetes-like control-plane refers to kcp

[Stefan Schimanski]

+1 for 1, kubernetes-like control plane.

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[Davanum Srinivas]

Christoph,

please review https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/committee-steering/governance/project-naming.md 

thanks!

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[Nelo-T. Wallus]

I’m ambivalent as well, but prefer singular since kcp by itself is “one” control plane.

Thanks, Cheers

[Mangirdas Judeikis]

Davanum,

This is the central question here —not about the name, but about the
meaning, elevator-pitch type of thing. Name is kcp and going to stay
kcp. But when one asked, "What does it mean?" or "What does it stand
for?"

Answers were usually "kubernetes-like control planes" or "it does not
stand for anything"—which, from history, commits—it really does. And
we refrained from using Kubernetes-like.

But we want to close this once and for all - it's not a name, it's
what the name/projects does/stands for.

It was there from 2022
(https://github.com/kcp-dev/kcp/commit/1151dfe0e406c6f03f4e1ddcd5600ff1ef432fea),
and it was similar to that from commit 1st
(https://github.com/smarterclayton/kcp/tree/e390f02fddfe4ad0f469f134241b55d52b3fc46c?tab=readme-ov-file#kcp-a-control-plane-for-kube-like-applications)
"A control plane for Kube-like Applications", which does not stand
true now as we don't have anything to do with Applications anymore.

And because it not a name, but meaning - I dont think we are violating
this? Who would be best to answer this once and for all?

Thanks,
MJ

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[Karol Szwaj]

My take is that I would always consider this acronym as a singular word.
So +1 for the option 1.

[Marko Mudrinić]

Hello everyone,

We have reached out to the Kubernetes Steering Committee on December 16, 2025 in order to get a clarification if it's acceptable to use "Kubernetes-like control plane" as a meaning for kcp.

On January 16, 2026 we have received a response and I'm quoting the relevant part:

"Based on the explanation that the official name of the project remains “kcp”, and that the descriptive wording (“Kubernetes-like control plane”) serves only as an explanation rather than a formal acronym expansion, the Kubernetes Steering Committee does not view this usage as a violation of or contradiction to the Kubernetes Project Naming Rules."

Given that, I think we can proceed with this change once we reach the maintainer's quorum.

Kind regards,

Marko

[Marvin Beckers]

Given that we are not talking about a formal acronym, I do want to express that I think this is not changing much, we've been describing kcp as "Kubernetes-like control plane" already.

That being said, I vote +1 on that option 1 in the proposal ("Kubernetes-like control plane"). It's good to have a) formal consensus and b) confirmation from upstream we are acting in accordance with their naming rules.

Marvin

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[Mangirdas Judeikis]

+1 from my side for option 1 just to re-confirm.

MJ

 

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