website/content/en/docs/reference/glossary/operator-pattern.md

title	id	date	full_link	short_description	aka	tags
Operator pattern	operator-pattern	2019-05-21	/docs/concepts/extend-kubernetes/operator/	A specialized controller used to manage a custom resource		architecture

The operator pattern is a system design that links a {{< glossary_tooltip term_id="controller" >}} to one or more custom resources.

You can extend Kubernetes by adding controllers to your cluster, beyond the built-in controllers that come as part of Kubernetes itself.

If a running application acts as a controller and has API access to carry out tasks against a custom resource that's defined in the control plane, that's an example of the Operator pattern.