km8

README

km8 — KubeMate

A terminal UI for Kubernetes, inspired by Lens IDE, lazygit, lazydocker, and k9s. Built with Go and Bubble Tea.

Features

• 17 built-in resource types + CRD support -- dynamic discovery of Custom Resources at startup
• Real-time Watch updates -- resources refresh automatically via Kubernetes Watch API
• Vim-style navigation -- j/k, u/d page scroll, gg/G, / search
• 3-panel lazygit-style layout -- numbered sidebar, list, and detail panels with scroll indicator
• Drill-down navigation -- Deployment → Pods → Containers
• YAML detail view with syntax highlighting -- [YAML] tab shows the resource serialized exactly like kubectl get -o yaml; container drill-down shows the extracted spec/status for that container
• Pod log streaming with auto-follow -- multi-container support with <container>|<log> format; the Logs tab sticks to the tail by default (a ▼ marker in [3] Logs ▼ shows follow is active). Scroll up (k/↑/u/gg) to pause and read history; press G to catch up and resume following
• Container shell exec -- kubectl exec into any container
• In-place resource editing -- fetches YAML with kubectl get -o yaml, opens $EDITOR, applies with kubectl apply -f if the file changed; skips apply on no-op saves. Uses declarative apply semantics — see Editing Resources for implications
• Resource deletion -- D with confirmation dialog
• Search/filter -- / to search in all three panels and in the namespace/context picker popups
• Clipboard copy (y) -- copies the focused panel's content via OSC 52 (works through tmux/SSH, no xclip/pbcopy required)
• Namespace and context switching -- n / c
• Detail tabs -- YAML / Events / Logs (Logs tab only for Pods)
• Long values wrap, never truncate -- applies to YAML, Events, and Logs; wrap points reflow on panel resize
• Panel expand -- =/- to toggle full-screen Table or Detail panel
• Theme system -- drop a theme.yaml into config directory to override colors
• Help & App Log overlays -- ? / ! popup on top of main UI
• Error notifications -- status bar badge + status line message
• Crash logging -- panics written to the km8 log directory
• Audit logging -- every kubectl edit and kubectl delete recorded to audit-*.log

Installation

Quick Install (macOS/Linux)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vulcanshen/km8/main/install.sh | sh

Quick Install (Windows PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vulcanshen/km8/main/install.ps1 | iex

Homebrew (macOS/Linux)

brew install vulcanshen/tap/km8

Scoop (Windows)

scoop bucket add vulcanshen https://github.com/vulcanshen/scoop-bucket
scoop install km8

From source

go install github.com/vulcanshen/km8/cmd@latest

Uninstall

# macOS/Linux
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vulcanshen/km8/main/uninstall.sh | sh

# Windows PowerShell
irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vulcanshen/km8/main/uninstall.ps1 | iex

Build locally

git clone https://github.com/vulcanshen/km8.git
cd km8
go build -o km8 ./cmd/
./km8

Quick Start

km8

Connects to your current kubeconfig context. Use n to switch namespaces, c to switch contexts.

Key Bindings

Navigation

Key	Action
j / k	Move cursor up / down
u / d	Page up / down
gg / G	Jump to top / bottom
1 / 2 / 3	Switch panel
Tab	Cycle panels

Table (Panel 2)

Key	Action
/	Search / filter
Enter	Drill down
e	Edit resource (get → editor → apply)
D	Delete resource
s	Shell into container

Detail (Panel 3)

Key	Action
h / l	Switch tab (YAML / Events / Logs)
= / -	Expand / restore panel
G	Jump to bottom (on Logs: also resumes follow-tail)
k / ↑ / u / gg	Scroll up (on Logs: pauses follow-tail)

Global

Key	Action
n	Switch namespace (/ to filter inside the popup)
c	Switch context (/ to filter inside the popup)
y	Copy focused panel content to clipboard (OSC 52)
!	App log
?	Toggle help
q / Esc	Quit / back

Editing Resources

Pressing e on a resource runs a three-step flow:

1. Fetch — kubectl get <resource> -o yaml --context <ctx> writes the YAML to a temp file
2. Edit — your $EDITOR opens the temp file (editor resolution: config.yaml editor → $VISUAL → $EDITOR → vi / notepad)
3. Apply — if the file changed, kubectl apply -f <tmpfile> --context <ctx> is run; if nothing changed, the apply is skipped entirely

Differences from kubectl edit:

	km8 e	kubectl edit
Apply method	kubectl apply (declarative)	Strategic merge patch
Concurrency check	None — no resourceVersion enforcement	Uses resourceVersion to detect conflicts
Annotation side-effect	Sets last-applied-configuration	Does not set it

Because km8 uses kubectl apply, it is not suitable for resources actively managed by Helm or operators — the annotation may interfere with their reconciliation loop. For those resources, use kubectl edit directly.

Context Isolation

km8 maintains its own session-local context. Switching context with c inside km8 does not modify ~/.kube/config or the KUBECONFIG environment variable in any other terminal.

All kubectl subprocesses spawned by km8 (edit, delete, shell exec) receive an explicit --context <name> flag, so they always target the cluster km8 is showing — regardless of what kubectl's default context is set to.

This means you can safely run km8 in one terminal while using kubectl in another without either session interfering with the other's context.

Configuration

Config files are in the OS-appropriate config directory. Set XDG_CONFIG_HOME to override on any platform:

OS	Default Path
Linux	$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/km8/ or ~/.config/km8/
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/km8/
Windows	%APPDATA%/km8/

Logs (crash and audit) are written to the logs/ subdirectory of the config directory.

config.yaml

default_context: ""      # kubeconfig context (default: current-context)
default_namespace: ""    # namespace filter (default: all namespaces)
editor: ""               # editor override (default: $VISUAL → $EDITOR → vi)

theme.yaml

Drop a theme.yaml to customize colors. Only override what you need -- unspecified fields keep defaults.

sidebar:
  background: ""           # empty = terminal transparent
  foreground: "#cdd6f4"
  selected_bg: "#45475a"
  selected_fg: "#cdd6f4"
  category_fg: "#89b4fa"

table:
  header_bg: "#313244"
  header_fg: "#89b4fa"
  row_fg: "#cdd6f4"
  selected_row_bg: "#45475a"
  selected_row_fg: "#cdd6f4"
  alternating_bg: ""

detail:
  border_color: "#585b70"
  label_fg: "#89b4fa"
  value_fg: "#cdd6f4"
  tab_active_bg: "#45475a"
  tab_active_fg: "#cdd6f4"
  tab_inactive_fg: "#6c7086"

status_bar:
  background: "#181825"
  foreground: "#cdd6f4"
  cluster_fg: "#a6e3a1"
  namespace_fg: "#f9e2af"
  context_fg: "#89b4fa"

status_line:
  background: "#313244"
  foreground: "#a6adc8"

status:
  running: "#a6e3a1"
  pending: "#f9e2af"
  error: "#f38ba8"
  unknown: "#6c7086"

Requirements

• kubectl on $PATH (for edit, delete, and shell exec)
• A valid kubeconfig (~/.kube/config or $KUBECONFIG)
• A running Kubernetes cluster

License

GPL-3.0