kubeshift

A simple CLI to switch your active Kubernetes cluster by managing the kubeconfig at ~/.kube/config.

• Package name: kubeshift
• CLI commands: kubeshift (long form), ks (short alias)

Features

• List available kubeconfig files in ~/.kube (YAML/YML).
• Use a selected config to overwrite ~/.kube/config.
• Simple, zero-dependency workflow built on Node.js.

Installation

# with npm
yarn global add kubeshift # or
npm i -g kubeshift        # or
pnpm add -g kubeshift

Alternatively, run without global install:

npx kubeshift list

Usage

$ kubeshift --help
$ ks --help

List clusters

Scans ~/.kube and prints files ending with .yaml or .yml.

kubeshift list
# or
ks list

Example output:

kubernetes clusters:  [ 'cluster-a', 'staging', 'prod' ]

Use a cluster

Select a cluster by prefix (case-sensitive). The command finds the first file whose name starts with the given value and writes its contents to ~/.kube/config.

kubeshift use staging
# or
ks use staging

If staging.yaml exists under ~/.kube, it becomes your active kubeconfig.

How it works

• Reads ~/.kube directory.
• Treats any *.yaml/*.yml file as a candidate config.
• use <cluster> performs a prefix match on filenames and writes the matched file's contents into ~/.kube/config.

Notes & limitations

• The match is prefix-based: use prod matches the first of prod.yaml, prod-eu.yaml, etc.
• If multiple files share the same prefix, the first match wins. Keep names unambiguous.
• If no match is found, the CLI prints cluster not found: <name>.
• Ensure your kubeconfig files in ~/.kube are valid.

Requirements

• Node.js 18+ recommended (ES modules). Earlier versions may work but are not officially tested.
• Access to your ~/.kube directory.

Development

# install deps
pnpm install

# build once
pnpm build

# watch mode (TypeScript -> dist)
pnpm dev

# run built CLI
node dist/index.js --help

During development you can also link locally:

pnpm build
npm link  # or pnpm link --global
kubeshift list

Project structure

• index.ts: CLI entry that defines list and use <cluster> commands.
• dist/index.js: Compiled output used by the published binary.

License

MIT

Author

@akazwz