[CNCF Insights] UX patterns from 2026-03-25

[github-actions]

CNCF Landscape Intelligence Report

Scanned repos: jaegertracing/jaeger-ui grafana/grafana meshery/meshery backstage/backstage
Period: Last 7 days | Frontend-relevant PRs found: 71

UX Theme Distribution

Theme	Hits	Relevance to Console
Accessibility	4	ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, screen reader support
Navigation & Search	21	Sidebar navigation, deep linking, search/filter/sort
Data Visualization	8	Charts, graphs, time series for metrics cards
Forms & Input	20	Cluster creation forms, config editors, validation
Real-time & Live Updates	6	SSE streams, live dashboard updates, auto-refresh
Onboarding & Guided Setup	6	First-run experience, setup wizards, empty state CTAs
Theming & Dark Mode	1	Theme switching, CSS variables, design tokens

What These Projects Are Doing (with context)

Each PR below includes its description so you can see what they changed and why — not just a title.

jaegertracing/jaeger-ui (20 frontend PRs)

• fix: replace remaining tooltip arrow prop

  Which problem is this PR solving? - Resolves [nightly:a11y] Accessibility (a11y) Compliance failed — 2026-03-12 #2221 ## Description of the changes - replace the deprecated arrowPointAtCenter Tooltip prop in ReferencesButton - switch it to the current Ant Design API: arrow={{ pointAtCenter: true }} ## How w

• Remove store npm dependency and suppress LightningCSS warning

  Motivation The Vite 8 upgrade introduced new build warnings: 1. [EVAL] Warning from store/plugins/lib/json2.js — The store npm package (v2.0.12, latest and unmaintained) bundles a json2 polyfill that uses eval(). Vite 8's rolldown bu

• Add Plexus demo route to main UI (dev only, /plexus-demo)

  Summary Adds an interactive Plexus demo page at /plexus-demo, available in development mode only (tree-shaken from production builds). The demo showcases the graph visualization capabilities of @jaegertracing/plexus with 8 tabbed examples: - *

• 🧪 [testing improvement] Add unit tests for getSelectedSpanID

  🎯 What: The testing gap addressed The getSelectedSpanID utility function in packages/jaeger-ui/src/components/TracePage/TraceTimelineViewer/duck.ts lacked unit tests, leading to incomplete coverage of the module's exported logic. ### 📊 Covera

• 🔒 [security fix] Replace innerHTML with textContent to mitigate XSS risk

  🎯 What: The vulnerability fixed is a potential Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) issue in the calcRects function of packages/jaeger-ui/src/components/DeepDependencies/Graph/DdgNodeContent/calc-positioning.ts. ⚠️ Risk: The use of innerHTML when

• Add bundle-size plugin

  AI Usage in this PR (choose one) See AI Usage Policy. - [ ] None: No AI tools were used in creating this PR - [ ] Light: AI provided minor assi

grafana/grafana (19 frontend PRs)

• QueryEditor: Setup Intercom survey

  Description Move to Intercom survey instead of Google form. ## Changes Intercom is already integrated into Grafana via Rudderstack (see RudderstackBackend.ts — the identify() call passes user_hash to Intercom's device-mode destination). Howe

• [release-12.4.2] Live: Support legacy bare numeric org ID in channel namespace

  Backport a376f3a80058d3d64e8465d306f171cdf5098376 from #120384 --- ## Summary - - StripK8sNamespace now falls back to parsing bare numeric strings (e.g. "1") as legacy org IDs when authlib.ParseNamespace returns an unrecognized format - Subscribe

• Dashboards: Skip a flakey test

  Related to Dashboards: Investigate a flakey test in dashboards-edit-panel-title-description.spec.ts grafana/grafana#120984

• Zanzana: Fix check request with wildcard as object name

  What is this feature? Fixes regression introduced in Resource Permissions: Allow users.permissions:read to read all grafana/grafana#120477 ``` logger=zanzana.server t=2026-03-24T14:14:02.037184955Z level=error msg="failed to perform check request" error="failed to check typed resource

• Faceted filter: fall back to frame names for name facet

  Followup to Add faceted labels filter for time series legend grafana/grafana#119918 ## Fix faceted filter for multi-query panels where all fields share the same name When multiple queries each return data frames with a generic field name like "Value" but distinct frame names

• DataLinks: Add field display name variable suggestion

  Adds ${__field.displayName} as a selectable variable suggestion in the data link URL editor.

meshery/meshery (20 frontend PRs)

• UI: adjust workspace imports

  (no description)

• UI: Next config for webpack

  (no description)

• [UI] Chore Sistent v0.18.0

  (no description)

• [WIP] [WIP] Address feedback on removing deprecated eslint config from next.config.js

  • Identify the feedback: removing eslint.ignoreDuringBuilds changes build behavior since next build now runs ESLint by default - [x] Add --no-lint to the build script in ui/package.json to preserve previous behavior - [x] Add `--no-lint

• fix: remove deprecated eslint config from next.config.js

  Summary - Next.js 16 no longer supports the eslint key in next.config.js and warns during builds - Remove the block; ESLint during builds is now controlled separately (e.g. via --no-lint flag or ESLint config directly) ## Test plan - [ ] `np

• fix: migrate TreeView to SimpleTreeView for @mui/x-tree-view v8

  Summary - @mui/x-tree-view v8 removed TreeView in favor of SimpleTreeView, breaking the build after the upgrade to @mui/x-tree-view@^8.27.2 - Migrate all 4 affected Registry tree view components to use the new API Changes per file: - U

backstage/backstage (12 frontend PRs)

• chore(deps): update dependency @google-cloud/cloud-sql-connector to v1.9.2

  This PR contains the following updates: | Package | Change | Age | Confidence | |---|---|---|---| | [@google-cloud/cloud-sql-connector](https://redire

• docs: add documentation style guide for Backstage contributors

  Hey, I just made a Pull Request! Adapted from the k8s style guide. The goal here is to better standardize the tone of the docs. #### ✔️ Checklist - [ ] A changeset describing the change and affected packages. ([more info](https://g

• feat(ui): replace Header tabs with nav-based grouped navigation

  Hey, I just made a Pull Request! Replaces the RA Tabs/TabList/Tab rendering in the Header component with a <nav>-based approach. Flat items render as links via useLink, grouped items render as BUI MenuTrigger/Menu/MenuItem dropdo

• fix(cli-module-actions): show schema flags in execute --help and fix build errors

  actions execute <action-id> --help now fetches the action's JSON schema and renders action-specific flags, falling back to generic help when auth fails. The original implementation had TypeScript errors that broke CI and a silent success exit code

• Improve PluginHeader and Header styles

  Hey, I just made a Pull Request! This improves the styles of both the PluginHeader and Header. The icon is now wrapped into a squared surface and both component backgrounds are working as expected. This also improved the title link to look as

• fix(docs-ui): update @next/mdx and eslint-config-next to v16.1.7

  Hey, I just made a Pull Request! Align remaining Next.js ecosystem packages with the next v16.1.7 upgrade from #33402. Updates @next/mdx and eslint-config-next from 16.1.6 to 16.1.7. #### ✔️ Checklist - [ ] A changeset descri

Actionable Takeaways for KubeStellar Console

• Accessibility (4 PRs across repos) — CNCF projects are actively investing here. For our console: ARIA labels, keyboard navigation, screen reader support.
• Navigation & Search (21 PRs across repos) — CNCF projects are actively investing here. For our console: Sidebar navigation, deep linking, search/filter/sort.
• Data Visualization (8 PRs across repos) — CNCF projects are actively investing here. For our console: Charts, graphs, time series for metrics cards.
• Forms & Input (20 PRs across repos) — CNCF projects are actively investing here. For our console: Cluster creation forms, config editors, validation.
• Real-time & Live Updates (6 PRs across repos) — CNCF projects are actively investing here. For our console: SSE streams, live dashboard updates, auto-refresh.
• Onboarding & Guided Setup (6 PRs across repos) — CNCF projects are actively investing here. For our console: First-run experience, setup wizards, empty state CTAs.

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Auto-generated by auto-qa-tuner CNCF intelligence scan

[clubanderson]

Reviewed the CNCF Landscape Intelligence Report for 2026-03-25. This is an informational digest summarizing 71 frontend-relevant PRs across Jaeger UI, Grafana, Meshery, and Backstage over the past week.

Summary of trends noted:

• Forms & Input (20 PRs) and Navigation & Search (21 PRs) are the most active areas across CNCF projects. Meshery is migrating MUI tree view components; Backstage is replacing tab-based navigation with nav-based grouped navigation. Worth watching as patterns mature.
• Accessibility (4 PRs) -- Jaeger is cleaning up deprecated tooltip APIs (Ant Design migration). No direct applicability to our codebase today.
• Data Visualization (8 PRs) -- Grafana-specific (faceted filters, data link variables). Not relevant to our current card-based UI.
• Real-time & Live Updates (6 PRs) -- Grafana live channel namespace fixes. Our SSE-based updates are already in place.
• Onboarding & Guided Setup (6 PRs) -- No concrete patterns emerged that we could adopt as quick wins.
• Security -- Jaeger fixed an XSS vulnerability by replacing innerHTML with textContent. Good practice we already follow.

Conclusion: No immediate, low-effort changes are warranted from this report. The trends are noted for future reference when planning larger UX initiatives. Closing as informational.