derailed/k9s

K9s is a terminal-based user interface for managing Kubernetes clusters. Kubernetes is an infrastructure system for running and orchestrating containerized applications across multiple servers, but its standard command-line tool (kubectl) requires typing long commands to inspect or modify resources. K9s solves this by providing an interactive, visually-organized terminal dashboard where you can browse all your pods, deployments, services, logs, and other Kubernetes resources in real time using keyboard shortcuts instead of typing repetitive commands. The tool continuously watches the Kubernetes API server for changes, so the information on screen stays live and up to date. You can navigate through different resource types, view logs, exec into running containers, delete or edit resources, and filter by namespace, all from the same keyboard-driven interface. It also includes features like vulnerability scanning for running container images. Because it runs entirely in the terminal, it works over SSH and in environments without a graphical interface. Someone would use K9s when they frequently need to inspect or troubleshoot applications running on a Kubernetes cluster and find the standard kubectl command-line workflow too slow or verbose. It is particularly popular with developers and operators who spend significant time monitoring cluster state, tailing logs, or responding to incidents. The tech stack is Go (version 1.23 or above), and K9s reads your existing kubeconfig file to connect to clusters, no extra configuration is needed if kubectl already works. It is available via Homebrew, apt, winget, snap, and many other package managers on Linux, macOS, and Windows.