K9s & Lens

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

You run everything with kubectl. Get pods, describe, logs, exec, delete, apply — fifty times a day across five namespaces. It works, but every command is a context switch: type, wait, read, type again. -n namespace on every single invocation.

So you use K9s. A terminal UI that shows your entire cluster in one view. Switch namespaces and clusters in a keystroke, tail logs in real time, exec into a pod without constructing the command — everything you reach for in kubectl, but without the friction.

K9s

K9s is a TUI (terminal UI) for Kubernetes. It stays in your terminal, updates live, and is keyboard-driven throughout.

brew install derailed/k9s/k9s
k9s # connect to current context
k9s --context prod # specific context
k9s -n monitoring # start in a specific namespace

Key	Action
`:pod`	Jump to pods view
`:deploy`	Deployments
`:svc`	Services
`:ns`	Switch namespace
`/`	Filter/search
`l`	Logs
`e`	Edit resource YAML
`d`	Describe
`s`	Shell into pod
`ctrl-d`	Delete
`?`	Help / full keybinding list

Most resource types are reachable by typing : followed by the resource name — :configmap, :secret, :ingress, :pvc, and so on.

Why TUI over GUI

K9s lives in the terminal alongside your other tools. No window switching, works over SSH, starts instantly, and the keyboard-driven workflow is faster once it is in muscle memory. For day-to-day cluster work it is the right default.

Lens

Lens is a desktop GUI for Kubernetes — a full IDE-style interface with a visual cluster overview, resource browsing, metrics charts, log streaming, and terminal access built in.

It is the better choice when you need to onboard someone who is not yet comfortable with the terminal, or when you want a visual overview to share with a non-technical stakeholder. For engineers doing operational work all day, K9s is faster.

Worth noting: Lens has moved toward a commercial model (Lens Desktop Pro). OpenLens is the open-source build of the same codebase, without the account requirement.

kubectx / kubens

If K9s is more than you need and you just want to stop typing --context and -n on every command, kubectx and kubens solve exactly that:

kubectx # list contexts
kubectx prod # switch to prod context
kubectx - # switch back to previous context

kubens # list namespaces
kubens monitoring # switch default namespace

No TUI, no GUI — just fast context and namespace switching that persists for the rest of your terminal session. Install alongside K9s; they complement each other.

brew install kubectx

Resources

K9s documentation
K9s GitHub
Lens
OpenLens — open-source Lens build
kubectx/kubens — fast context and namespace switching

K9s on Backend Engineering Strategy Tools

K9s & Lens

K9s

Navigation

Why TUI over GUI

Lens

kubectx / kubens

Resources