K9s

K9s is a terminal UI (TUI) for Kubernetes. It is faster than clicking in a web dashboard and morediscoverable than raw kubectl.

When to Use

• Cluster Management: Viewing Pods, Logs, and YAML in real-time.
• Debugging: Shell into a pod (s), view logs (l), delete pod (Ctrl+d).
• Safety: Read-only mode prevents accidental deletions in Prod.

Core Concepts

Views

Navigate by resource type (:pods, :svc, :deploy).

XRay

:xray RESOURCE creates a dependency tree view (e.g., Service -> Pod -> Node).

Pulses

:pulse gives a high-level health dashboard.

Best Practices (2025)

Do:

• Use Aliases: Define aliases for commonly used CRDs.
• Use Plugins: Extend K9s with custom scripts (e.g., kubectl neat to clean YAML).
• Context Awareness: Use skins to color-code Prod (Red) vs Dev (Blue).

Don’t:

• Don’t rely solely on it: Know your kubectl commands for scripting/automation.

References

• K9s Documentation