If you currently use the odo command-line interface (CLI) in your cloud-native development workflow, this post contains important news for you: the odo project is being officially deprecated. Find out what this change means for your Red Hat OpenShift and Kubernetes development workflow and how to transition easily.
odo: A brief history
First released in 2019, odo originated as a simple, fast, and developer-focused command-line interface designed to streamline the lifecycle of applications on OpenShift and Kubernetes. Its primary goal was to abstract away complexity, allowing developers to focus purely on coding, building, and deploying without becoming cluster experts. Since its inception, odo has been a valuable part of the OpenShift ecosystem, focusing specifically on the inner-loop—the rapid cycle of development and testing—for our cloud-native users.
Why is odo being deprecated?
Odo has low adoption rates and limited community engagement. As the cloud-native landscape continues to evolve, we are planning to focus our resources in other areas.
Key dates for odo users
To ensure you have ample time to migrate your workflows, here are the two critical dates for the odo CLI:
- Immediate deprecation date: October 23, 2025. As of this date, the odo CLI is officially deprecated. We will continue to provide critical security patches and bug fixes, but will no longer be accepting new features or significant bug fixes. The existing Cooperative Community Support model will continue until the end of life date.
- End of life (EOL) date: March 31, 2026. After March 31, 2026, Red Hat will no longer provide any maintenance, security updates, or technical support for the odo CLI. We strongly urge all users to complete their migration to the recommended alternatives before the EOL date.
Transition your inner-loop development to OpenShift Dev Spaces
We recommend that odo users begin to explore alternative tools for their development workflows. The best tool for you will depend on your specific needs and preferences. For inner loop development (the rapid cycle of coding, building, and testing), we recommend Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces.
OpenShift Dev Spaces offers a complete, in-browser IDE experience that is instantly ready for any developer on your team. It uses Devfile and Git to define a shared, consistent workspace configuration, virtually eliminating the "it works on my machine" problem. This transition moves your inner loop from a localized tool to a fully managed, on-cluster development environment designed for consistency, team velocity, and maximum developer productivity. You get a consistent environment across teams and the ability to start coding immediately.
Map core odo commands for your outer loop with Podman and oc
For outer loop, consider looking at standard tools like Podman or the oc CLI.
Your migration involves mapping specific odo use cases to these two purpose-built tools:
- For local container and image management (building images, running local containers, or managing development-time pods on your machine), consider Podman and Podman Desktop. The Podman CLI offers commands like
podman buildandpodman runto replace local build and deployment, while Podman Desktop provides a visual interface for managing these local resources. - For OpenShift cluster interaction (deployment, logging, scaling, or any administrative task directly on the cluster), consider the standard
ocCLI. Commands likeoc apply -f [resource]andoc logs -f [pod]are your authoritative replacements for managing OpenShift components.
To give you a starting point for your migration, here are a few common functional mappings.
| odo command function | New equivalent | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
Component creation (odo init) | Use the Devfile Registry | Define and deploy your application resources using manifests or Devfile. |
Local build (odo build-images) | podman build | Build a container image locally on your machine before pushing to a registry. |
Deployment (odo deploy) | podman build, podman push, and oc apply | Apply your deployment manifest directly to the cluster. |
View resources (odo list) | oc get [resource_type], oc describe [resource_type] [resource_name] | View all resources or specific resource types on your cluster. |
Get up to speed quickly with our Podman and OpenShift command-line essentials cheat sheets.
Conclusion
While odo's service comes to an end on March 31, 2026, we are ready to welcome you to the next generation of developer tooling. Continue your journey with standardized, professional environments in OpenShift Dev Spaces for your inner loop and long-term stability in the Podman and oc CLIs for your core operations.
