The kcli replaces kubevirtci, the topic was discussed in KubeVirt CI weekly meeting on Jan 19. 

As the kubevirtCI maintainer, we need to consider whether we will approve kcli instead of kubevirtci for kubevirt or not in the future. The kcli project maintained for 7 years, deploy vanilla k8s, openshift, hypershift, declarative, can create bm nodes or use vm nodes, updated daily, the info from @oshoval

• POC - PR https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/pull/16502
• POC of emulated SR-IOV https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirtci/pull/1600 - Note that if we use kcli, it will able to do it as well

The following critical research tasks must be completed to ensure a smooth transition:

• Map core functions capabilities:  a multi-node k8s cluster provisioning, KubeVirt component auto-deployment, test environment initialization/destruction, network/storage configuration and verify if kcli natively supports these functions or if custom extensions are required, in particular, GPU/SR-IOV features support on kcli?
• Version compatibility validation: Research the compatibility matrix of kcli with the Kubernetes and KubeVirt versions used in your kubevirtci and confirm whether kcli can stably deploy clusters matching these versions without functional degradation.
• Custom logic audit: Identify custom modifications or proprietary logic added to your self-maintained kubevirtci (e.g., custom network policies, test data injection scripts, resource limit rules) and assess how to replicate these logics in kcli (via profile configurations, post-install scripts, or plugin extensions)?
• Knowledge preparation: The team has in-depth expertise in kubevirtci, but may lack hands-on experience with kcli. This can lead to slow troubleshooting of post-replacement issues, how long will it take the KubeVirt(not only kubevirtci) team to get up to speed with kcli?

Expected of this user story:

1. Details on kcli vs. kubevirtci: Pros and Cons
2. bring the topic to upstream VEP to get all SIG teams reviews in next version