Sharpening the axe never delays the woodcutting. No matter when, the time you spend on your toolchain is always worth it.

1. Autocompletion - kubectl

OS X install command:

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brew install bash-complete@2

It is not just for kubectl — it provides completion prompts for other command lines too.

Add the following to .zshrc:

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# kubectl complete
source <(kubectl completion zsh)

When you type the kubectl get pod command, pressing Tab lists the resources of the current type automatically; if there are no such resources, it lists the directory files.

2. Environment Switching and Management - kubectx

OS X install command:

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brew install kubectx

It provides two command-line tools:

• kubectx, switch between clusters

• kubens, switch between Namespaces

3. Show the Current Environment in the Command Line - kube-ps1

OS X install command:

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brew install kube-ps1

Add the following to .profile:

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# kube-ps1
source "/usr/local/opt/kube-ps1/share/kube-ps1.sh"
PS1='$(kube_ps1)'$PS1

But the context names configured in config are usually long and hard to distinguish, so you need to change them:

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sed -i'.s' -E 's/kubernetes-admin@cluster.local'/dev/ ~/.kube/config

Replacing kubernetes-admin@cluster.local with dev can be used together with Quickly Switching Between Different Kubernetes Environments Locally.

4. Interactive Command - kube-prompt

kube-prompt lets users omit the kubectl they would otherwise have to type every time, and also provides some interactive autocompletion. kube-shell also offers interactive autocompletion, but it has not been updated for a long time; install it with pip install kube-shell, and it may come in handy on a server.

Install command:

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brew install c-bata/kube-prompt/kube-prompt

To start using it:

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kube-prompt

5. References

• https://github.com/ahmetb/kubectx
• https://github.com/jonmosco/kube-ps1
• https://github.com/c-bata/kube-prompt
• https://github.com/cloudnativelabs/kube-shell