K9s Cheat Sheet

🐶 K9s Cheat Sheet

I had been looking for a k9’s cheat sheet for a while and have not found any that do not have advertisements, and so here is mine that I had Chatgpt assist in writing. I have also included this as a downloadable PDF and Text file.

*Download PDF Cheat sheet

*Download Text Cheat sheet

🚀 Launching K9s

k9s                        # Launch using default kubeconfig
k9s --kubeconfig /path     # Use specific kubeconfig
k9s --context myctx        # Use specific context
k9s --readonly             # Launch in read-only mode
k9s info                   # Show config/log paths

📁 Command Mode (:)

• :pod, :svc, :deploy, etc. — Go to resource view
• :ctx — Change context
• :ns — Change namespace
• :aliases or Ctrl-a — Show resource aliases
• :crd — View custom resources
• :apiservices, :secrets, :helm — Specialized views
• :xray RESOURCE — Show resource graph
• :pulse — Cluster overview
• :popeye or :pop — Run Popeye linter
• :dir /path — Browse disk files (e.g., saved YAML)

🔍 Filtering

• /pattern — Regex filter
• /!pattern — Inverse regex
• /-l key=value — Filter by label
• /-f value — Fuzzy text match

🧭 Navigation

• j / k — Move down/up
• h / l — Left/right in logs
• SPACE — Select for bulk actions
• Esc — Exit view or cancel
• Ctrl-c or :q — Quit K9s

📌 Resource Actions

• y — Copy YAML
• d — Describe
• v — View details
• e — Edit resource
• l — View logs
• s — Scale deployments or exec into container
• x — Decode secrets
• w — Toggle log line wrapping
• f — Toggle full-screen mode

⚙️ Shortcuts & Toggles

• Ctrl-d — Delete (with confirmation)
• Ctrl-k — Kill immediately
• Ctrl-w — Toggle wide layout
• Ctrl-z — Toggle error log
• Ctrl-e — Hide header
• Ctrl-s — Save output to file
• Ctrl-l — Rollback last apply

📊 Sorting (Shift + key)

• Shift-c — Sort by CPU
• Shift-m — Sort by Memory
• Shift-s — Sort by Status
• Shift-p — Sort by Namespace
• Shift-n — Sort by Name
• Shift-o — Sort by Node
• Shift-i — Sort by IP
• Shift-a — Sort by Age
• Shift-t — Sort by Restarts
• Shift-r — Sort by Readiness

🛠️ Special Views & Utilities

• :helm — View Helm releases
• :xray — Visualize pod relationships
• :pulse — Cluster dashboard
• :popeye — Run linting tool
• :dir /path — Navigate file system

❓ Help & Exit

• ? — Contextual help
• Esc — Go back/cancel
• :q or Ctrl-c — Exit K9s

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💡 Tips

• Use f to toggle full-screen view for easier YAML copying
• Use / to live filter resources
• Press ? for contextual help in every view

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Happy kuberneting 🧠🐳