Kaniko doesn't use buildkit - buildkit still uses containerd/runC under the hood so it can't run inside a container easily.
We are looking at interoperability with buildkit (and the large set of of other tooling like this) through the CBI: https://github.com/containerbuilding/cbi which aims to be a neutral interface on top of things like buildkit, buildah, docker and kaniko that build images.
Discloser: I work on kaniko and other container things at Google.
Thanks Akihiro for the follow-up. And while I'm at it, thank you for all this excellent code that we get to enjoy for free! It's really fantastic work.
We are looking at interoperability with buildkit (and the large set of of other tooling like this) through the CBI: https://github.com/containerbuilding/cbi which aims to be a neutral interface on top of things like buildkit, buildah, docker and kaniko that build images.
Discloser: I work on kaniko and other container things at Google.