k9s Terminal UI

k9s gives you a live, navigable view of the cluster in a terminal. It replaces repetitive kubectl commands with a vim-style interface where you jump between resource types, filter by namespace, and inspect or edit resources in place.

Launching

mise installs k9s as a project tool. Run it from the project directory:

k9s

Start directly on a specific resource type:

k9s -c ingressroutes
k9s -c pods
k9s -c deploy

This is useful when k9s gets stuck on a view after certain navigation sequences — relaunch with -c to jump straight to the resource you want.

Navigation

k9s uses vim keys for movement and a : command bar for switching resource views.

Key	Action
j / k	Move down / up
g / G	Top / bottom of list
:	Open command bar (type a resource name)
/	Filter current view
Esc	Back / close overlay
?	Help (context-sensitive)

Switching resources

Type : followed by a resource name or alias:

:pods
:deploy
:svc
:ns
:events
:ingressroutes
:helmreleases
:kustomizations

Switching namespaces

Press 0 to view all namespaces. Press 1–9 to switch to a favorited namespace. Favorite a namespace by navigating to :ns, selecting one, and pressing u.

Inspecting resources

Select any resource and press one of these keys:

Key	Action
y	View full YAML manifest
d	Describe (kubectl describe equivalent)
e	Edit in $EDITOR
l	View logs (pods only)
s	Shell into container
Shift+F	Port-forward

IngressRoutes

IngressRoutes are Traefik CRDs that map hostnames to backend services. They hold the domain names — the Service YAML only shows ports.

From k9s

Navigate to :ingressroutes or press Shift+L (custom hotkey). Select a route and press y to see the Host(...) match rule:

spec:
  routes:
    - match: Host(`docs.k8s.local`)

The current cluster has three IngressRoutes:

Namespace	Name	Domain
docs	docs	docs.k8s.local
monitoring	grafana	grafana.k8s.local
traefik	traefik-dashboard	traefik.k8s.local

From kubectl

List all IngressRoutes:

kubectl get ingressroutes -A

Extract hostnames from the match rules:

kubectl get ingressroutes -A -o jsonpath='{range .items[*]}{.metadata.namespace}/{.metadata.name}: {.spec.routes[*].match}{"\n"}{end}'

Custom hotkeys

The project ships a hotkeys file at ~/.local/share/k9s/hotkeys.yaml. k9s hot-reloads it — no restart needed. Custom hotkeys appear in the ? help view.

Resource views (Shift+letter)

Key	Resource
Shift+D	Deployments
Shift+V	Services
Shift+E	Events
Shift+X	Secrets
Shift+Q	ConfigMaps
Shift+L	IngressRoutes
Shift+B	PVCs
Shift+W	Nodes
Shift+Y	Namespaces

Flux resources (Shift+letter)

Key	Resource
Shift+H	HelmReleases
Shift+K	Kustomizations
Shift+G	GitRepositories

Pods (Shift+number)

Shift+0 jumps to pods across all namespaces.

Reserved keys

These keys are built-in and cannot be overridden in hotkeys.yaml. Overriding them causes a “duplicate hotkey” load failure with no UI feedback beyond a small status message:

• Sort keys: Shift+{A,C,F,I,M,N,O,P,R,S,T}
• Jump Owner: Shift+J
• Navigation: j, k, h, l, g, G, Enter, Esc, :, /, ?
• Actions: y, d, v, e, l, s, f, x, r, Space, 0–9, u
• Ctrl combos: Ctrl+{A,B,C,D,E,F,K,L,R,S,W,Z}

Safe keys for custom hotkeys: Shift+{0-9}, Shift+{B,D,E,G,H,K,L,Q,U,V,W,X,Y,Z}, F1–F12.

Sorting

In any list view, press Shift+letter to sort:

Key	Sort by
Shift+C	CPU usage
Shift+M	Memory usage
Shift+N	Name
Shift+A	Age
Shift+S	Status
Shift+T	Restart count