K9s

🐶 Kubernetes CLI To Manage Your Clusters In Style!

Generate Convert Improve

Install / Use

/learn @derailed/K9s

About this skill

Quality Score

0/100

README

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!

Screenshots

Pods <img src="assets/screen_po.png"/>
Logs <img src="assets/screen_logs.png"/>
Deployments <img src="assets/screen_dp.png"/>

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?

Channel: K9sersSlack
Invite: K9slackers Invite

Installation

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

Via Homebrew for macOS or Linux
```
brew install derailed/k9s/k9s
```
Via MacPorts
```
sudo port install k9s
```
Via snap for Linux
```
snap install k9s --devmode
```
On Arch Linux
```
pacman -S k9s
```
On OpenSUSE Linux distribution
```
zypper install k9s
```
On FreeBSD
```
pkg install k9s
```

On Ubuntu

wget https://github.com/derailed/k9s/releases/latest/download/k9s_linux_amd64.deb && sudo apt install ./k9s_linux_amd64.deb && rm k9s_linux_amd64.deb

On Fedora (42+)
```
dnf install k9s
```
Via Winget for Windows
```
winget install k9s
```
Via Scoop for Windows
```
scoop install k9s
```
Via Chocolatey for Windows
```
choco install k9s
```

Via a GO install

# NOTE: The dev version will be in effect!
go install github.com/derailed/k9s@latest

Via Webi for Linux and macOS

curl -sS https://webinstall.dev/k9s | bash

Via pkgx for Linux and macOS
```
pkgx k9s
```
Via gah for Linux and macOS
```
gah install k9s
```

Via Webi for Windows

curl.exe -A MS https://webinstall.dev/k9s | powershell

As a Docker Desktop Extension (for the Docker Desktop built in Kubernetes Server)
```
docker extension install spurin/k9s-dd-extension:latest
```

Building From Source

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

Clone the repo
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

PreFlight Checks

K9s uses 256 colors terminal mode. On `Nix system make sure TERM is set accordingly.
```
export TERM=xterm-256color
```
In order to issue resource edit commands make sure your EDITOR and KUBE_EDITOR env vars are set.
```
# Kubectl edit command will use this env var.
export KUBE_EDITOR=my_fav_editor
```
K9s prefers recent kubernetes versions ie 1.28+

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

Related Skills

node-connect

334.9k

Diagnose OpenClaw node connection and pairing failures for Android, iOS, and macOS companion apps

xurl

334.9k

A CLI tool for making authenticated requests to the X (Twitter) API. Use this skill when you need to post tweets, reply, quote, search, read posts, manage followers, send DMs, upload media, or interact with any X API v2 endpoint.

frontend-design

82.3k

Create distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces with high design quality. Use this skill when the user asks to build web components, pages, or applications. Generates creative, polished code that avoids generic AI aesthetics.

openai-whisper-api

334.9k

Transcribe audio via OpenAI Audio Transcriptions API (Whisper).