kubectl-switch

A simple tool to manage and switch between multiple Kubernetes configuration files. This tool allows you to dump all your kubeconfig files in a single directory and easily switch between them as well as configure the current namespace.

Features

• Manage multiple kubeconfig files in a single directory.
• Easily switch between different Kubernetes contexts.
• Easily switch between different namespaces.
• Persistent context/namespace switching across different shells.
• Interactive prompts support fuzzy search.
• Non-destructive operations on your original kubeconfig files. kubectl-switch will never edit those. It will only work with copies of them.

Why kubectl-switch?

kubectl-switch is an alternative to tools like kubectx, kubens and kubie. It has been created because I feel all of those fall short in certain regards:

• kubectx and kubens assume all your contexts are defined in a single config file. Yes, there is some hackery you can do to your KUBECONFIG environment variable to make it work with multiple files, but it is (in my opinion) a sub-par workflow and I never really liked it
• kubie spawns a new shell when you use it to change contexts, making it practically impossible to integrate into scripts or taskfile automation. Also I consider it to be too complicated of a solution for what is fundamentally a really simple problem

What I wanted was something very simple conceptually: I just want to dump all my kubeconfig files in a single directory and then have my tool parse them and "physically" move over the config file to .kube/config (or whatever is configured in my KUBECONFIG env var) such that it is also persistent between different shells. Here is where kubectl-switch comes in!

Installation

Download Precompiled Binaries

Precompiled binaries are available for various platforms. You can download the latest release from the GitHub Releases page.

1. Download the appropriate binary for your system and extract the archive.

2. Make the extracted binary executable:

   chmod +x kubectl-switch

3. Move the binary to a directory in your PATH:

   mv kubectl-switch /usr/local/bin/kubectl-switch

Running via Docker

kubectl-switch is also available as a Docker container:

docker pull ghcr.io/mirceanton/kubectl-switch

Install via homebrew

1. Add the tap

   brew tap mirceanton/taps

2. Install kubectl-switch

   brew install kubectl-switch

Build from Source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/mirceanton/kubectl-switch
   cd kubectl-switch

2. Build the tool:

   If you have Taskfile installed, run:

   task build

   Otherwise, simply run the go build command:

   go build -o kubectl-switch

Usage

1. Place all of your kubeconfig files in a single directory. I personally prefer ~/.kube/configs/ but you can do whatever you fancy.

2. Set the environment variable KUBECONFIG_DIR

   export KUBECONFIG_DIR="~/.kube/configs/" # <- put here whatever folder you decided on at step 1

3. Run kubectl switch ctx or kubectl switch context to interactively select your context from a list

   vscode ➜ /workspaces/kubectl-switch $ kubectl switch context
   ? Choose a context:  [Use arrows to move, type to filter]
     cluster1kubectl-switch
     cluster2
   > cluster3kubectl-switch
   
   INFO[0102] Switched tkubectl-switchuster3'
   
   vscode ➜ /workspaces/kubectl-switch $ kubectl get nodes
   NAME       STATUS   ROLES           AGE   VERSION
   cluster3   Ready    control-plane   21h   v1.30.0

   Alternatively, pass in a context name to the command to non-interactively switch to it:

   vscode ➜ /workspaces/kubectl-switch $ kubectl switch ctx cluster3
   INFO[0000] Switched to context 'cluster3'
   
   vscode ➜ /workspaces/kubectl-switch $ kubectl get nodes
   NAME       STATUS   ROLES           AGE   VERSION
   cluster3   Ready    control-plane   21h   v1.30.0

   This will literally detect the file in which that context is defined and copy-paste it to the path defined in your KUBECONFIG.

4. Run the kubectl switch ns or kubectl switch namespace to interactively select your current namespace from a list

   vscode ➜ /workspaces/kubectl-switch $ kubectl switch namespace
   ? Choose a namespace:  [Use arrows to move, type to filter]
   > default
     kube-node-lease
     kube-public
     kube-system
   
   INFO[0012] Switched to namespace 'kube-system'
   
   vscode ➜ /workspaces/kubectl-switch $ kubectl get pods
   NAME                               READY   STATUS    RESTARTS      AGE
   coredns-7db6d8ff4d-nqmlf           1/1     Running   1 (69m ago)   21h
   etcd-cluster1                      1/1     Running   1 (69m ago)   21h
   kube-apiserver-cluster1            1/1     Running   1 (69m ago)   21h
   kube-controller-manager-cluster1   1/1     Running   1 (69m ago)   21h
   kube-proxy-lxnvr                   1/1     Running   1 (69m ago)   21h
   kube-scheduler-cluster1            1/1     Running   1 (69m ago)   21h
   storage-provisioner                1/1     Running   3 (68m ago)   21h

   Alternatively, pass in a namespace name to the command to non-interactively switch to it:

   vscode ➜ /workspaces/kubectl-switch $ kubectl get pods
   No resources found in default namespace.
   vscode ➜ /workspaces/kubectl-switch $ kubectl switch ns kube-public
   INFO[0000] Switched to namespace 'kube-public'
   vscode ➜ /workspaces/kubectl-switch $ kubectl get pods
   No resources found in kube-public namespace.

   This will modify your currently active kubeconfig file (not the original one from KUBECONFIGS_DIR, but rather the copy from KUBECONFIG) to set the current namespace.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.