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Docs · The interface

Using Kubyl

The interface

Title bar, sidebar, tabs, docks and status bar.

Kubyl has a Zed-style layout: a title bar, a sidebar, a centre area of tabs and splits, two docks and a status bar. Size, maximised state, tabs, splits and dock visibility are restored on the next start.

Title bar

  • Cluster switcher: colour-tagged icon, name, a red PROD badge when set, and Manage kubeconfigs….
  • Namespace switcher: shows “all namespaces” when none is selected. Use ↑ ↓ and Enter, and Ctrl S to toggle the star that favorites a namespace.
  • Search: opens the command palette.
  • Notifications bell: an unread dot and a history of toasts.

Favorites on top, then Clusters. Expand a cluster to see its resource tree, grouped as Overview, Alerts, Events, Network Flows, Prometheus, Workloads, Network, Config & Secrets, Storage, Access Control, Cluster, Administration and Custom Resources. See Resource lists for the kinds in each group.

Tabs and splits

The centre holds panes of tabs. Every pane keeps its own history, so you can step back and forward through the views you opened. Reorder tabs by dragging. The mouse Back and Forward buttons work too.

KeysAction
CtrlTorCtrlWNew tab / close tab
CtrlTaborCtrlShift]Next tab
CtrlShiftTaborCtrlShift[Previous tab
Ctrl\orCtrlShift\Split right / split down
ShiftEscZoom the current pane
Ctrl[orAltLeftBack
Ctrl]orAltRightForward
CtrlShiftNNew window

Docks

  • Right dock: the Details panel, Events and Active Sessions.
  • Bottom dock: the Terminal panel, with tabs and splits.

All docks resize by dragging and toggle with shortcuts. Open Active Sessions to see every running log stream, terminal, port-forward and watch with a stop button.

KeysAction
CtrlBToggle sidebar
CtrlRToggle details dock
CtrlJToggle bottom dock
Ctrl`Show the Terminal panel

Status bar and key hints

The status bar shows connection status, active sessions, the metrics source (for example “Prometheus · …”, “metrics-server” or “No metrics”), alerts and web views. When an update has been downloaded it reads “restart to update to vX.Y.Z”. The key-hint bar lists the shortcuts of whatever list has focus.

Zoom

KeysAction
Ctrl=orCtrl+Zoom in
Ctrl-Zoom out
Ctrl0Reset zoom

Zoom changes ui_font_size, 13 px by default and clamped to 9–24 px.

On macOS Kubyl has a native menu bar (Kubyl, File, View, Go, Window, Help). Toggle Light/Dark Theme is in View. You can open several windows. Closing the last window quits Kubyl, on macOS too. The window opens at 1440×900 and can shrink to 800×500.

Something missing or wrong? Open an issue on GitHub.