Kubernetes Helper (kubetbe)

kubetbe is a lightweight TUI companion for kubectl. It focuses on the daily workflow of jumping between namespaces, finding pods, watching logs, deleting resources and quickly answering questions like “which service owns this IP?” – all from the terminal.

Built with Bubble Tea and Go.

Highlights

• 🎯 Namespace navigator with optional CLI filtering (kubetbe prod) and built‑in paging (10 items per page).
• 🔁 Live pod view that refreshes automatically while preserving scroll position.
• 🪵 Structured log panes – each pod gets its own scrollable panel.
• 📝 Describe on demand: press i to fetch kubectl describe pod, rendered inline.
• ❌ Resource actions: delete namespaces (d in namespace view) and pods (d in pod view) with confirmation.
• 🔎 Find service by IP: press f, enter an IP, immediately see matching kubectl get services --all-namespaces -o wide rows.
• 🧭 Keyboard-first UX with Vim style movement, tab cycling between panels, and page navigation via Tab, Shift+Tab, ←, →.

Requirements

• kubectl configured to talk to the cluster you want to inspect.
• To build from source: Go 1.21+.
• To use prebuilt binaries: no Go toolchain required.

Installation

Option 1: Using the install script (recommended)

Prebuilt binaries are published per release. Run:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alpdogan/kubetbe/main/install.sh | bash

The script:

1. Fetches the latest version from GitHub Releases automatically.
2. Detects your platform (macOS Intel/Apple Silicon, Linux AMD64).
3. Downloads the matching binary from the latest GitHub Release.
4. Installs it to ~/.local/bin (change via INSTALL_DIR=/custom/path).
5. If kubetbe is already installed, it will update to the latest version (or skip if already up to date).

PATH reminder
Add ~/.local/bin to your shell configuration if it is not already there:

# zsh (default on macOS)
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc

# bash (often default on Linux)
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

You can also clone the repo and run the script locally:

git clone https://github.com/alpdogan/kubetbe.git
cd kubetbe
INSTALL_DIR=/usr/local/bin bash install.sh   # requires sudo, optional

Option 2: Build from source

git clone https://github.com/alpdogan/kubetbe.git
cd kubetbe
go build -o kubetbe .
./kubetbe           # optional search term: ./kubetbe prod

Usage & Shortcuts

Namespace view (startup screen)

Key(s)	Action
↑ / k / ↓ / j	Move selection (automatically flips pages)
Tab / → / l	Next page (10 namespaces per page)
Shift+Tab / ← / h	Previous page
Enter	Open selected namespace (switch to panel view)
d	Delete namespace (confirmation required)
f	Find service by IP (enter IP, Esc to cancel)
Esc	Close service lookup results
r	Refresh namespace list
q, Ctrl+C	Quit

Tip: you can start the app filtered by a string: kubetbe zeus shows only namespaces containing “zeus”.

Panel view (after selecting a namespace)

Layout:

• Pods Panel (top, fixed height) – follows kubectl get pods.
• Log Panel(s) (bottom) – one per pod; only the active log pane is shown at a time.
• Describe: appears in place of logs when toggled.

Key(s)	Action
Tab / Shift+Tab	Cycle between pods panel, describe (if open), log panels
↑ / k / ↓ / j	Scroll pods or logs (depending on active panel)
PgUp / PgDn	Page scroll logs/describe
Home / End	Jump to top/bottom of logs/describe
i	Toggle describe for the selected pod
d	Delete highlighted pod (with confirmation)
b	Back to namespace view
q, Ctrl+C	Quit

Service Lookup (f)

While in the namespace selection screen press f:

1. Enter an IP (e.g., 0.0.0.0).
2. Hit Enter – matching rows from kubectl get services --all-namespaces -o wide appear.
3. Esc clears the results.

How It Works

• Pods and logs refresh continuously using Bubble Tea commands.
• Log tail is currently --tail=50; tweak in kubectl/commands.go.
• Namespace pagination adapts to terminal height but caps list length at 10 per page.
• The application keeps kubectl invocations simple so you can reason about what is happening under the hood.

Developing

go test ./...
go run main.go

Binary builds for release:

GOOS=darwin GOARCH=amd64 go build -o kubetbe-darwin-amd64 .
GOOS=darwin GOARCH=arm64 go build -o kubetbe-darwin-arm64 .
GOOS=linux  GOARCH=amd64 go build -o kubetbe-linux-amd64 .

Upload these artifacts to a GitHub Release so the install script can fetch them.

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Happy debugging! Contributions, bug reports and feature suggestions are welcome. Data plane feeling a little foggy? kubetbe is here to help. 🎉