K9s CLI & Launch commands
14 commands in 2 groups: Install K9s, Launch Options. Click or tap any command to copy it. Part of the full K9s cheat sheet. Official documentation: k9scli.io.
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Install K9s
K9s is a terminal UI that lets you explore resources, view logs, exec into containers, and port-forward directly from the terminal.
curl -LO https://github.com/derailed/k9s/releases/latest/download/k9s_Linux_amd64.tar.gz && tar xzf k9s_Linux_amd64.tar.gz && sudo mv k9s /usr/local/bin/
Install from GitHub release tarball (Linux amd64)
curl -sS https://webinstall.dev/k9s | bash
Install via official webi script (Linux / macOS)
brew install derailed/k9s/k9s
Install via Homebrew (macOS / Linux with brew)
k9s version
Verify installation and show build info
Launch Options
Start K9s targeting a specific context, namespace, or resource. All flags can be combined.
k9s
Launch K9s with the current context
k9s --cluster <name>
Use a specific cluster from kubeconfig
k9s --command pods
Open directly on a specific resource type
k9s --context <name>
Launch using a specific kubeconfig context
k9s --insecure-skip-tls-verify
Skip TLS certificate validation for the server
k9s --kubeconfig <path>
Use a specific kubeconfig file
k9s --readonly
Launch in read-only mode (no mutations allowed)
k9s --user <name>
Use a specific user from kubeconfig
k9s -A
Launch with all namespaces visible
k9s -n <namespace>
Launch scoped to a specific namespace