k9s README

The project's README from github.com/derailed/k9s. As one markdown file: README.md.

k9s

K9s - Kubernetes CLI To Manage Your Clusters In Style!

K9s provides a terminal UI to interact with your Kubernetes clusters. The aim of this project is to make it easier to navigate, observe and manage your applications in the wild. K9s continually watches Kubernetes for changes and offers subsequent commands to interact with your observed resources.

Note...

K9s is not pimped out by a big corporation with deep pockets. It is a complex OSS project that demands a lot of my time to maintain and support. K9s will always remain OSS and therefore free! That said, if you feel k9s makes your day to day Kubernetes journey a tad brighter, saves you time and makes you more productive, please consider sponsoring us! Your donations will go a long way in keeping our servers lights on and beers in our fridge!

Thank you!

Go Report Card golangci badge Docker Pulls release License Releases

Screenshots

  1. Pods
  2. Logs
  3. Deployments

Demo Videos/Recordings

Documentation

Please refer to our K9s documentation site for installation, usage, customization and tips.

Slack Channel

Wanna discuss K9s features with your fellow K9sers or simply show your support for this tool?

Installation

K9s is available on Linux, macOS and Windows platforms. Binaries for Linux, Windows and Mac are available as tarballs in the release page.

Building From Source

K9s is currently using GO v1.23.X or above. In order to build K9s from source you must:

  1. Clone the repo

  2. Build and run the executable

    make build && ./execs/k9s

Running with Docker

Running the official Docker image

You can run k9s as a Docker container by mounting your KUBECONFIG:

docker run --rm -it -v $KUBECONFIG:/root/.kube/config derailed/k9s

For default path it would be:

docker run --rm -it -v ~/.kube/config:/root/.kube/config derailed/k9s

Building your own Docker image

You can build your own Docker image of k9s from the Dockerfile with the following:

docker build -t k9s-docker:v0.0.1 .

You can get the latest stable kubectl version and pass it to the docker build command with the --build-arg option. You can use the --build-arg option to pass any valid kubectl version (like v1.18.0 or v1.19.1).

KUBECTL_VERSION=$(make kubectl-stable-version 2>/dev/null)
docker build --build-arg KUBECTL_VERSION=${KUBECTL_VERSION} -t k9s-docker:0.1 .

Run your container:

docker run --rm -it -v ~/.kube/config:/root/.kube/config k9s-docker:0.1

Building a multi-platform image

The make imgx target builds for linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 via Docker buildx:

make imgx

Cross-architecture builds rely on QEMU emulation. Docker Desktop includes this out of the box. On a plain Docker Engine install, see the buildx multi-platform docs for enabling emulation.

Override the defaults with BUILD_PLATFORMS, IMG_NAME and VERSION:

make imgx BUILD_PLATFORMS=linux/amd64,linux/arm64 IMG_NAME=your-org/k9s VERSION=v0.0.1

PreFlight Checks

K8S Compatibility Matrix

k9s k8s client
>= v0.27.0 1.26.1
v0.26.7 - v0.26.6 1.25.3
v0.26.5 - v0.26.4 1.25.1
v0.26.3 - v0.26.1 1.24.3
v0.26.0 - v0.25.19 1.24.2
v0.25.18 - v0.25.3 1.22.3
v0.25.2 - v0.25.0 1.22.0
<= v0.24 1.21.3

The Command Line

# List current version
k9s version

# To get info about K9s runtime (logs, configs, etc..)
k9s info

# List all available CLI options
k9s help

# To run K9s in a given namespace
k9s -n mycoolns

# Start K9s in an existing KubeConfig context
k9s --context coolCtx

# Start K9s in readonly mode - with all cluster modification commands disabled
k9s --readonly

Logs And Debug Logs

Given the nature of the ui k9s does produce logs to a specific location. To view the logs and turn on debug mode, use the following commands:

# Find out where the logs are stored
k9s info

 ____  __.________
|    |/ _/   __   \______
|      < \____    /  ___/
|    |  \   /    /\___ \
|____|__ \ /____//____  >
        \/            \/

Version:           vX.Y.Z
Config:            /Users/fernand/.config/k9s/config.yaml
Logs:              /Users/fernand/.local/state/k9s/k9s.log
Dumps dir:         /Users/fernand/.local/state/k9s/screen-dumps
Benchmarks dir:    /Users/fernand/.local/state/k9s/benchmarks
Skins dir:         /Users/fernand/.local/share/k9s/skins
Contexts dir:      /Users/fernand/.local/share/k9s/clusters
Custom views file: /Users/fernand/.local/share/k9s/views.yaml
Plugins file:      /Users/fernand/.local/share/k9s/plugins.yaml
Hotkeys file:      /Users/fernand/.local/share/k9s/hotkeys.yaml
Alias file:        /Users/fernand/.local/share/k9s/aliases.yaml

View K9s logs

tail -f /Users/fernand/.local/data/k9s/k9s.log

Start K9s in debug mode

k9s -l debug

Customize logs destination

You can override the default log file destination either with the --logFile argument:

k9s --logFile /tmp/k9s.log
less /tmp/k9s.log

Or through the K9S_LOGS_DIR environment variable:

K9S_LOGS_DIR=/var/log k9s
less /var/log/k9s.log

Key Bindings

K9s uses aliases to navigate most K8s resources.

Action Command Comment
Show active keyboard mnemonics and help ?
Show all available resource alias ctrl-a
To bail out of K9s :quit, :q, ctrl-c
To go up/back to the previous view esc If you have crumbs on, this will go to the previous one
View a Kubernetes resource using singular/plural or short-name :pod⏎ accepts singular, plural, short-name or alias ie pod or pods
View a Kubernetes resource in a given namespace :pod ns-x⏎
View filtered pods (New v0.30.0!) :pod /fred⏎ View all pods filtered by fred
View labeled pods (New v0.30.0!) :pod app=fred,env=dev⏎ View all pods with labels matching app=fred and env=dev
View pods in a given context (New v0.30.0!) :pod @ctx1⏎ View all pods in context ctx1. Switches out your current k9s context!
Filter out a resource view given a filter /filter⏎ Regex2 supported ie `fred
Inverse regex filter /! filter⏎ Keep everything that doesn't match.
Filter resource view by labels /-l label-selector⏎
Fuzzy find a resource given a filter /-f filter⏎
Bails out of view/command/filter mode <esc>
To view and switch to another Kubernetes context (Pod view) :ctx⏎
To view and switch directly to another Kubernetes context (Last used view) :ctx context-name⏎
To view and switch to another Kubernetes namespace :ns⏎
To switch back to the last active command (like how "cd -" works) - Navigation that adds breadcrumbs to the bottom are not commands
To go back and forward through the command history back: [, forward: ] Same as above
To view all saved resources :screendump or sd⏎
To delete a resource (TAB and ENTER to confirm) ctrl-d
To kill a resource (no confirmation dialog, equivalent to kubectl delete --now) ctrl-k
Launch pulses view :pulses or pu⏎
Launch XRay view :xray RESOURCE [NAMESPACE]⏎ RESOURCE can be one of po, svc, dp, rs, sts, ds, NAMESPACE is optional
Launch Popeye view :popeye or pop⏎ See popeye
Mark resource space
Mark range of resources ctrl-space
Clear all marks ctrl-\
Save resources to file ctrl-s
Toggle faults/error display ctrl-z
Toggle wide columns ctrl-w
Toggle header ctrl-e
Toggle breadcrumbs ctrl-g
Move selected column left shift-left arrow
Move selected column right shift-right arrow
Sort by selected column shift-o
Sort by Name shift-n
Sort by Age shift-a
Sort by Namespace shift-p Only when viewing all namespaces
Sort by Status shift-s
Copy resource name c
Copy namespace n
View YAML y
View logs l Resource specific
View previous logs p Resource specific
Shell into container s Pods only
Attach to container a Pods only
Describe resource d
Edit resource e Not available in read-only mode
Show port-forwards f Pods/Services/Containers
Port forward shift-f Pods/Services/Containers
Warp to namespace w

k9s (derailed/k9s)

infrastructure
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34.8K ·GitHub
K9s
What is this?K9s is a terminal UI that lets you navigate, observe and manage Kubernetes clusters in real time instead of typing raw kubectl commands.
Is this a graphical app or does it run in the terminal?It's a text-based terminal UI (TUI) you run from the console, not a desktop GUI; it continuously watches your cluster and updates the view live.
How do I install and run k9s?Install it via Homebrew, MacPorts, snap, your Linux distro's package manager, Winget/Scoop/Chocolatey on Windows, `go install`, or just download a prebuilt binary from the releases page, then run `k9s` in your terminal.
Do I need kubectl or a kubeconfig set up first?Yes, k9s reads your existing Kubernetes context/KUBECONFIG, and to edit resources from inside the UI you also need the EDITOR and KUBEEDITOR environment variables configured.
Does it work with any Kubernetes version?It's built for recent Kubernetes releases (1.28+), and each k9s release targets a specific k8s client version per the compatibility matrix, so pairing an old cluster with a new k9s build can cause issues. Your terminal also needs to support 256 colors.
What can I actually do once I'm inside a resource view?You can view YAML, tail or view previous logs, shell/attach into a container, edit or delete resources, port-forward, mark and copy resources, all via single-key shortcuts.
What is the XRay view for?XRay (`:xray RESOURCE [NAMESPACE]`) renders a hierarchical dependency graph showing how resources like pods, services and deployments relate to each other.
Can k9s check my cluster for misconfigurations?Yes, typing `:popeye` or `:pop` launches the Popeye cluster sanitizer right inside k9s to scan for misconfigurations and vulnerabilities.
Can I run k9s in Docker instead of installing it?Yes, there's an official Docker image you run by mounting your KUBECONFIG, and k9s is also distributed as a Docker Desktop Extension for its built-in Kubernetes server.
What are similar projects?ctop, sofka, witr, sampler, minikube, telegraf, compose, wtf
Which topics is it in?k8s, infrastructure, containers, tui, sysadmin, observability, golang, kubernetes, dashboard, monitoring, command-line, devops
Creator
derailed
Size
64.3 MB
Stars
34.8K
Updated
CommitOct 17Releasev0.51.0Jun 06
Age
7y
Commits · 90 Days