Getting Started

About This Package

kubernetes-el is a Kubernetes client for Emacs. With kubernetes-el you can manage your Kubernetes clusters much as you would with kubectl, but with greater interactivity, less typing/copy-paste, and generally better ease-of-use.

kubernetes-el is still in early development stages, but we hope to enable ~80-90% of functionality you’d typically use kubectl for—with 10% of the typing.

Warning

This documentation assumes at least a working understanding of Kubernetes – what it is, its concepts, and how to work with it. If you’re just beginning your Kubernetes journey, this documentation will do little to help you in that regard; we recommend looking elsewhere for general Kubernetes resources first.

Tip

kubernetes-el is secretly a wrapper around kubectl. Don’t tell anyone.

Regarding feature parity with kubectl

kubernetes-el serves a similar purpose to kubectl. However, it does not aim to be a full replacement for kubectl. Rather, kubernetes-el aims to provide Emacs-based access to most common use cases.

Installation

MELPA

This package is available on the MELPA package repository. See the instructions there for how to configure Emacs to pull packages from MELPA.

Once you’ve set that up, use your preferred method of configuring and installing packages.

use-packagestraight.el

(use-package kubernetes)

(straight-use-package 'kubernetes)

Or, if you use straight.el with use-package:

(use-package kubernetes
  :straight t)

If you’d like to pull in the Evil compatibility package, install the kubernetes-evil package as well.

use-packagestraight.el

(use-package kubernetes-evil
  :ensure t
  :after kubernetes)

(straight-use-package 'kubernetes)
(straight-use-package 'kubernetes-evil)

Or, if you use straight.el with use-package:

(use-package kubernetes-evil
  :straight t
  :after kubernetes)

Otherwise, you can install the packages with M-x package-install.

Manual

Note

Installing manually requires Emacs 25 and Cask.

git clone git@github.com:kubernetes-el/kubernetes-el.git
cd kubernetes-el
make && make install

Start the package

Warning

Before starting the package, make sure you have kubectl installed.

To start the package, use the entry-point command kubernetes-overview.

M-x kubernetes-overview

Tip

You could consider defining a more concise alias for this command. For example, the following would allow you to enter the package via M-x k8s.

(fset 'k8s 'kubernetes-overview)

You’ll enter the Overview pane. This is where you’ll likely spend the majority of your time with kubernetes-el and where the majority of your interactions will take place.

Screenshot of kubernetes-el on the Overview pane

Next Steps

You’re done! Feel free to start poking around on your own; describe-mode will give you a good overview. Otherwise, for more structured guidance, check out the Tutorials section.