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Ref Labels

Labels categorize refs by their semantic meaning.

Available Labels

namespace

The resource depends on its Namespace. Nearly every namespaced resource has this ref.

apps/v1/Deployment/kube-system/coredns
  ──[namespace]──▶ v1/Namespace//kube-system

crd

The resource depends on a CustomResourceDefinition. Custom resources cannot exist without their CRD.

cert-manager.io/v1/Certificate/default/my-cert
  ──[crd]──▶ apiextensions.k8s.io/v1/CustomResourceDefinition//certificates.cert-manager.io

controller

The resource is managed by a controller (via ownerReferences with controller: true).

apps/v1/ReplicaSet/default/myapp-abc123
  ──[controller]──▶ apps/v1/Deployment/default/myapp

owner

The resource has an ownerReference to another resource (non-controller ownership).

v1/Pod/default/myapp-abc123-xyz
  ──[owner]──▶ apps/v1/ReplicaSet/default/myapp-abc123

workloadRegardingEvent

An Event that relates to a workload. Used to associate Events with the resources they describe.

events.k8s.io/v1/Event/default/myapp.17abc
  ──[workloadRegardingEvent]──▶ apps/v1/Deployment/default/myapp

Custom Labels

Ref-parsers and value-defined refs can set custom labels via:

# In ref-parser
label: my-custom-label

# In refBuilder CEL
refBuilder().outgoing(id(...)).label("my-label")

Owner Resolution via Values

When Hydra prints preset owner-resolution paths, each hop can include a via: marker showing how the parent candidate was reached.

Possible values are:

owner-ref

The parent came from Kubernetes metadata.ownerReferences.

regarding-ref

The parent came from an Event's direct regarding / involvedObject subject reference.

workload-regarding-event-ref

The parent came from a synthetic workload-to-Event anchor ref labeled workloadRegardingEvent. This is used when Hydra can connect an Event back to a workload even if the intermediate subject is not available as a full live object.

objectset-owner

The parent came from Rancher wrangler objectset.rio.cattle.io/owner-* annotations.

podMetrics

The parent came from a ref labeled podMetrics, typically linking a workload or Pod to metrics.k8s.io/v1beta1/PodMetrics.

Labels in the TUI

Labels are displayed in the interactive TUI (hydra local inspect, hydra gitops inspect) to help identify the nature of each edge at a glance.

See Also