Installation

Kubyl runs on macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Windows (x86_64 and ARM64) and Linux (amd64 and arm64, Wayland and X11). Every release is published on the download page and on GitHub with a SHA256SUMS file.

Package managers#

Homebrew (macOS)#

brew install --cask birkneralex/tap/kubyl

Update later with brew upgrade --cask kubyl.

winget (Windows)#

winget install BirknerAlex.Kubyl

Update later with winget upgrade BirknerAlex.Kubyl.

apt (Debian, Ubuntu)#

curl -fsS https://silo.tyrola.dev/RPM-GPG-KEY-silo | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/silo.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/silo.gpg] https://silo.tyrola.dev/kubyl/stable stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/silo.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install kubyl

dnf (Fedora, RHEL, openSUSE)#

sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/kubyl.repo <<'EOF'
[kubyl]
name=Kubyl
baseurl=https://silo.tyrola.dev/kubyl/stable
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://silo.tyrola.dev/RPM-GPG-KEY-silo
EOF
sudo dnf install kubyl

pacman (Arch Linux)#

curl -fsS https://silo.tyrola.dev/pacman-signing-key | sudo pacman-key --add -
sudo pacman-key --lsign-key silo-pacman@tyrola.dev
sudo tee -a /etc/pacman.conf <<'EOF'
[kubyl]
SigLevel = PackageOptional DatabaseRequired
Server = https://silo.tyrola.dev/kubyl/stable/pacman/$arch
EOF
sudo pacman -Sy kubyl

Flatpak (silo)#

Kubyl is published as a Flatpak on the same silo server as the apt, dnf and pacman packages, not on Flathub. Add Flathub too, because the GNOME runtime (GTK 3 and WebKitGTK) comes from there:

$ flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo$ flatpak remote-add --user kubyl https://silo.tyrola.dev/kubyl/stable/silo.flatpakrepo$ flatpak install kubyl io.github.birkneralex.Kubyl

Update with flatpak update. The app can read your home folder, so it finds ~/.kube/config and the certificate files a kubeconfig points at. It stores tokens in the Secret Service. Exec plugins that call aws or gcloud cannot run inside the sandbox, so use another install method if your kubeconfigs rely on them.

Flathub#

We planned to publish Kubyl on Flathub, but Flathub's policy doesn't allow apps that were made with the help of AI. Other apps in their repository were almost certainly made with AI too, so we cancelled our submission. We find it sad that such an outdated policy is still in place in 2026. That is why the Flatpak lives on silo.

Direct downloads#

Windows SmartScreen#

Windows builds are not code-signed, so SmartScreen warns on first launch. Choose More info, then Run anyway, or install with winget instead. You can check the download against SHA256SUMS first.

Verify a download#

$ sha256sum --check --ignore-missing SHA256SUMS

On macOS use shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing, and on Windows compare Get-FileHash <file> with the line in SHA256SUMS. After installing on macOS you can check the signature with codesign --verify --deep --strict /Applications/Kubyl.app. Packages from apt, dnf and pacman are verified by your package manager against the repository's GPG key. The self-update manifest is separately signed with minisign (ed25519) and checked by the app, see Updates and privacy.

Linux runtime dependencies#

The .deb, .rpm and Arch packages pull these in for you. With the tarball or AppImage you need: Wayland client and xkbcommon, X11/xcb, fontconfig, freetype, the Vulkan loader, ALSA, zstd, GTK 3 and WebKitGTK 4.1. WebKitGTK is required for service web views.

Build from source#

You need Rust 1.98 or newer.

$ git clone https://github.com/BirknerAlex/kubyl$ cd kubyl$ cargo run --release -p kubyl

On Debian and Ubuntu, install the build dependencies first:

$ sudo apt install pkg-config clang libwayland-dev libxkbcommon-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev libx11-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxcb1-dev libxi-dev libxrandr-dev libfontconfig1-dev libfreetype-dev libvulkan-dev libasound2-dev libzstd-dev libssl-dev libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libgtk-3-dev

The cloud update providers for EKS, GKE and AKS are optional cargo features (updates-eks, updates-gke, updates-aks). They are off by default and are not part of the official release binaries. See Cluster updates.

Updating#

Installs from a .dmg, .zip or .tar.gz update themselves. Installs from Homebrew, winget, apt, dnf, pacman, Flatpak or snap are left to their package manager. See Updates and privacy.