What is orb?

Orb is a network observability platform built for distributed, hybrid infrastructure. It deploys a control plane on Kubernetes (via Helm) and lightweight agents on monitored hosts. Agents connect outbound via MQTT to the control plane, avoiding firewall issues, and are dynamically reconfigured in real time through policies. The embedded pktvisor engine analyzes packets, DNS, DHCP, sFlow/NetFlow, dnstap, and runs synthetic probes (ping, TCP). Metrics are exported natively via OpenTelemetry to sinks such as Prometheus, Elasticsearch, and cloud storage. A responsive web UI and REST API manage agents, groups, policies, and datasets. The project is free and open source under MPL-2.0, backed by NetBox Labs.

Should you self-host orb?

orb scores 51/100 on selfhost.directory (how scoring works) and ranks #21 of 48 in Network Monitoring. It has 682 GitHub stars.

There was no stable release in the past 12 months, so check the repository's recent activity before you rely on it.

Setup is advanced: plan for several services and some ongoing maintenance. An official Docker image is available. It is MPL-2.0-licensed and written mostly in Go.

Its closest alternative on selfhost.directory is mitmproxy (86/100, 46 437 stars). It scores higher overall, so compare the two before you pick. See orb vs mitmproxy side by side.