Desktop documentation

Learn Kubyl Desktop

Everything about the native Kubernetes client: getting it running, connecting clusters, working with resources and configuring it to your taste.

Install Kubyl

Homebrew, winget, apt, dnf, pacman, direct downloads or build from source.

Connect a cluster, open a pod list and tail logs in five minutes.

The six prefixes that get you anywhere.

Every key in settings.json with its default.

Introduction
What Kubyl is, what it covers and how these docs are organised.
Installation
Install Kubyl with Homebrew, winget, apt, dnf, pacman, Flatpak, a release download or from source.
Quick start
Connect your first cluster and find your way around in five minutes.

Clusters and kubeconfigs
How Kubyl finds kubeconfigs, groups contexts and shows connection state.
Authentication
Client certificates, tokens, exec plugins, OIDC and OpenShift OAuth.
Kubeconfig editor
Create, edit, test and import kubeconfigs without leaving Kubyl.
Production and read-only
Guard rails for clusters you can't afford to break.

The interface
Title bar, sidebar, tabs, docks and status bar.
Command palette
Six prefixes that get you anywhere in the cluster.
Resource lists
Live tables, filter syntax, sorting, the details panel and actions.
Applications
Workloads, Services and config grouped into applications by their app.kubernetes.io labels.
YAML editor
Schema-aware editing, diff against live, dry run and server-side apply.
Logs
Follow logs from pods, workloads and services with search and level filters.
Terminal
Exec shells, attach, debug containers and node shells in a real terminal.
Port-forwarding
Forward ports from pods, services and workloads and keep them alive.
Pod file browser
Two-pane file manager between your machine and a container.
Overview and metrics
Cluster and namespace dashboards, events and CPU/memory metrics.

Alerts
Alertmanager alerts, silences and Prometheus rules per cluster or across all clusters.
Network flows
Live flows and topology from Cilium Hubble, Calico Whisker or NetObserv.
Service web views
Open Grafana, Prometheus and other in-cluster web UIs inside Kubyl.
Operators (OLM)
OperatorHub, OLM operators and OLM v1 extensions.
Helm
Helm charts, install, upgrade, rollback and uninstall with a preview of every change.
Cluster updates
Update paths, pre-flight checks and upgrades for OpenShift and managed clusters.
Argo CD
Applications, resource trees, diff, sync, history and rollback.
Flux CD
Kustomizations, HelmReleases and sources: health, inventory, reconcile, suspend and resume.

AI agents
Ask your own coding agent about what Kubyl shows, with read-only cluster tools.
Security Center
Vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, exposed secrets and RBAC findings from Trivy Operator.
Cost monitoring
Cluster and namespace costs, idle spend and efficiency from OpenCost.

Settings
Every key in settings.json with its default, and how the file behaves.
Keyboard shortcuts
The complete default keymap and the k9s preset.
Coming from k9s
Map your k9s habits to Kubyl.
Files and environment
Where Kubyl stores configuration, state, logs and secrets, and the environment variables it reads.
Updates and privacy
How Kubyl updates itself, what it connects to and what it stores.
Known limitations
What isn't finished or isn't there yet.