krew

kubectl krew command [options]

krew is the plugin manager for kubectl, the Kubernetes command-line tool. It simplifies discovering, installing, and managing kubectl plugins across macOS, Linux, and Windows.Krew maintains a central index of available plugins. Use kubectl krew update to sync the local index with the remote repository. The search command finds plugins by name or keyword, and info shows detailed plugin descriptions and usage.Plugins are installed to ~/.krew/bin, which must be in your PATH. After installation, plugins are invoked as kubectl plugin-name (without the "krew" prefix).Krew itself is a kubectl plugin, enabling self-updates via kubectl krew upgrade krew. Custom plugin indexes can be added with kubectl krew index add for private or third-party plugin repositories.Popular plugins include ctx (context switching), ns (namespace switching), neat (clean YAML output), and tree (resource hierarchy visualization).

-v, --v level

Log level verbosity (0-4).

Show help information.

install plugin

Install a kubectl plugin.

Remove an installed plugin.

Upgrade installed plugins. Upgrades all if no plugin specified.

Update the local copy of the plugin index.

Search for available plugins.

List installed kubectl plugins.

Show detailed information about a plugin.

Manage custom plugin indexes.

Show krew version and diagnostics.

Generate shell completion script.

Help about any command.

Requires kubectl v1.12 or later. The ~/.krew/bin directory must be added to PATH manually after installation. Plugin updates require explicit upgrade commands; they don't auto-update. Some plugins may have additional dependencies.

Krew was created by the Kubernetes SIG CLI team to address the need for a standardized kubectl plugin distribution mechanism. It was inspired by package managers like Homebrew and apt. The project has grown to host hundreds of community-contributed plugins, becoming the de facto standard for kubectl plugin management.

kubectl(1), k9s(1), helm(1)