kubectl Cheat Sheet 2025 - Modern Kubernetes Commands

# Add to ~/.zshrc
echo 'source <(kubectl completion zsh)' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'alias k=kubectl' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'complete -o default -F __start_kubectl k' >> ~/.zshrc

# If using Oh My Zsh, enable the kubectl plugin
# In ~/.zshrc, add kubectl to plugins:
plugins=(... kubectl)

# Reload shell
source ~/.zshrc

# Install bash-completion first (if not installed)
# macOS: brew install bash-completion@2
# Linux: apt-get install bash-completion

# Add to ~/.bashrc
echo 'source <(kubectl completion bash)' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'alias k=kubectl' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'complete -o default -F __start_kubectl k' >> ~/.bashrc

# Reload shell
source ~/.bashrc

# Enable completion for common aliases
alias kgp='kubectl get pods'
alias kgs='kubectl get svc'
alias kgd='kubectl get deployment'
alias kaf='kubectl apply -f'
alias kdel='kubectl delete'
alias klog='kubectl logs'
alias kexec='kubectl exec -it'

# Check kubectl version (must be within 1 minor version of cluster)
kubectl version --client --short

# Check cluster version
kubectl version --short

# Detailed version info
kubectl version -o yaml

# Get pods by status
kubectl get pods --field-selector=status.phase=Running

# Get nodes by condition
kubectl get nodes --field-selector=spec.unschedulable=false

# Combine with label selectors
kubectl get pods -l app=nginx --field-selector=status.phase=Running

# Describe with sorted events
kubectl describe pod my-pod | grep -A 20 Events

# Get events for specific resource
kubectl get events --field-selector involvedObject.name=my-pod \
  --sort-by='.lastTimestamp'

# Watch events in real-time
kubectl get events -w --field-selector type=Warning

# Debug container with ephemeral containers (K8s 1.23+)
kubectl debug my-pod -it --image=busybox --target=my-container

# Copy files from container (works with containerd)
kubectl cp my-pod:/path/to/file ./local-file

# Get container runtime info
kubectl get nodes -o wide

# Get resource usage for nodes
kubectl top nodes

# Get resource usage for pods
kubectl top pods --all-namespaces --sort-by=memory

# Get pod metrics with labels
kubectl top pods -l app=nginx

# Resource quotas and limits
kubectl describe resourcequota -n my-namespace

# Install convert plugin
curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl-convert"
chmod +x kubectl-convert
sudo mv kubectl-convert /usr/local/bin/

# Convert deprecated API versions
kubectl convert -f old-deployment.yaml --output-version apps/v1

# Batch convert all YAML files
find . -name "*.yaml" -exec kubectl convert -f {} \;

# Client-side dry run (validation only)
kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml --dry-run=client

# Server-side dry run (full validation)
kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml --dry-run=server

# Diff before applying
kubectl diff -f deployment.yaml

# Generate YAML from imperative commands
kubectl create deployment nginx --image=nginx:latest \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml > nginx-deployment.yaml

# Apply all configs in a directory
kubectl apply -f ./configs/ --recursive

# Apply with pruning (remove deleted resources)
kubectl apply -f ./configs/ --prune --all

# Apply with field manager
kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml --field-manager=ci-pipeline

# Server-side apply (recommended for GitOps)
kubectl apply -f deployment.yaml --server-side

# Apply kustomization
kubectl apply -k ./overlays/production/

# Build and view kustomization
kubectl kustomize ./overlays/production/

# Diff kustomization
kubectl diff -k ./overlays/production/

# Update kubeconfig for EKS
aws eks update-kubeconfig --region us-west-2 --name my-cluster

# Get EKS addon versions
aws eks describe-addon-versions --kubernetes-version 1.33

# EKS specific kubectl
curl -o kubectl https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/amazon-eks/1.33.0/2024-01-04/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl

# Get GKE credentials
gcloud container clusters get-credentials my-cluster --zone us-central1-a

# GKE specific operations
kubectl top nodes --heapster-namespace=kube-system

# Get AKS credentials
az aks get-credentials --resource-group myRG --name myCluster

# Enable AKS monitoring
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/OMS-docker/aks/omsagent.yaml

# Check current permissions
kubectl auth can-i create pods

# Check permissions as another user
kubectl auth can-i create pods --as=jane

# Check all permissions
kubectl auth can-i '*' '*'

# Get security context
kubectl get pods my-pod -o jsonpath='{.spec.securityContext}'

# Create secret from literal
kubectl create secret generic my-secret \
  --from-literal=username=admin \
  --from-literal=password='S3cur3P@ss'

# Create secret from file
kubectl create secret generic ssh-key \
  --from-file=id_rsa=~/.ssh/id_rsa

# Decode secret
kubectl get secret my-secret -o jsonpath='{.data.password}' | base64 -d

# 1. Check pod status
kubectl get pod my-pod -o wide

# 2. Describe for events
kubectl describe pod my-pod

# 3. Check logs
kubectl logs my-pod --previous  # Previous container logs
kubectl logs my-pod -c my-container --tail=100 -f

# 4. Debug with ephemeral container
kubectl debug my-pod -it --image=nicolaka/netshoot

# 5. Check resource constraints
kubectl top pod my-pod
kubectl describe node $(kubectl get pod my-pod -o jsonpath='{.spec.nodeName}')

# Test connectivity from pod
kubectl run tmp-shell --rm -i --tty --image nicolaka/netshoot -- /bin/bash

# Port forwarding for debugging
kubectl port-forward pod/my-pod 8080:80

# Get service endpoints
kubectl get endpoints my-service

# Test DNS resolution
kubectl exec -it my-pod -- nslookup kubernetes.default

# Set resource requests/limits
kubectl set resources deployment nginx \
  --limits=cpu=200m,memory=512Mi \
  --requests=cpu=100m,memory=256Mi

# Autoscaling
kubectl autoscale deployment nginx --min=2 --max=10 --cpu-percent=80

# Check HPA status
kubectl get hpa

# Delete multiple resources
kubectl delete pods -l app=test --grace-period=0 --force

# Scale multiple deployments
kubectl scale --replicas=3 deployment/app1 deployment/app2

# Patch multiple resources
kubectl get pods -o name | xargs -I {} kubectl label {} environment=dev

# Install modern tools
brew install kubectx  # includes kubens
brew install kubecolor  # Colorized kubectl output
brew install stern  # Multi-pod log tailing

# Context switching
kubectx prod  # Switch to prod context
kubectx -  # Switch to previous context

# Namespace switching
kubens monitoring  # Switch to monitoring namespace
kubens -  # Switch to previous namespace

# Create context with namespace
kubectl config set-context dev --cluster=dev-cluster \
  --user=dev-user --namespace=development

# Set default namespace for context
kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=production

# View merged kubeconfig
kubectl config view --merge --flatten > ~/.kube/config-merged

# ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc

# Quick pod shell access
ksh() {
  kubectl exec -it "$1" -- /bin/sh
}

# Quick pod bash access
kbash() {
  kubectl exec -it "$1" -- /bin/bash
}

# Get pod by partial name
kpod() {
  kubectl get pods | grep "$1" | head -1 | awk '{print $1}'
}

# Logs with grep
klogs() {
  kubectl logs "$1" | grep "$2"
}

# Force delete pod
kfdel() {
  kubectl delete pod "$1" --grace-period=0 --force
}

# Get all resources
kall() {
  kubectl api-resources --verbs=list --namespaced -o name \
    | xargs -n 1 kubectl get --show-kind --ignore-not-found
}