contswi - Kubernetes Context Switcher

contswi is a simple but effective command-line tool designed for Linux environments to quickly switch between different Kubernetes contexts. By leveraging kubectl, this tool allows users to select and change their active context using an intuitive menu-driven interface, navigable with arrow keys.

Features

• Quickly view all available Kubernetes contexts.
• Highlight the current active context.
• Easily switch between contexts using an interactive, arrow-key driven menu.
• Clean, responsive, and simple interface that fits into any Kubernetes workflow.

Requirements

Before using contswi, ensure you have the following set up:

1. kubectl: The Kubernetes command-line tool must be installed and properly configured on your system. This application interacts directly with kubectl to retrieve and set contexts.

   • Installation guide: kubectl official documentation

2. Pre-configured Kubernetes Contexts: You must have one or more Kubernetes contexts already set up in your kubeconfig. If you don't have any contexts configured, refer to the Kubernetes context documentation to set them up.

Installation

You can install the contswi tool in two ways: directly from the source code or via pip.

1. Installing from Source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/contswi.git
   cd contswi
   

2. Install the tool:

   After cloning the repository, you can install the tool locally with pip:

   pip install .
   

2. Installing via pip

To install the tool directly from PyPI, simply run:

pip install contswi

Usage

Once installed, you can use the contswi tool to interactively switch Kubernetes contexts.

Run the tool

contswi

Key Bindings

• Up Arrow (↑): Move the selection upwards.
• Down Arrow (↓): Move the selection downwards.
• Enter: Select the highlighted context and switch to it.
• Ctrl+C: Exit the program at any time.

Example

1. Running contswi will present a list of your Kubernetes contexts:

     dev-cluster  
   > prod-cluster <  
     staging-cluster  
   

2. Use the arrow keys to navigate through the contexts and press Enter to switch.

3. The tool will execute the equivalent of:

   kubectl config use-context <selected_context>
   

4. You will see the selected context become the active one.

Using with k9s

We love k9s—it’s one of the best, if not the best, Kubernetes IDE out there, and we thank Fernand Galiana for creating this fantastic tool. To make your experience even smoother, you can integrate contswi with k9s to ensure that every time you launch k9s, you first select your Kubernetes context conveniently.

To do this, add the following alias to your .bashrc file:

alias k9="contswi && k9s"

Then, reload your shell configuration by running:

source ~/.bashrc

This setup ensures that each time you run k9, you are prompted to select the desired Kubernetes context through contswi before launching k9s. This allows you to comfortably switch between clusters and environments, enhancing your productivity when managing Kubernetes resources.

For more information on k9s, check out the official repository.

Error Handling

If you encounter any errors or issues with the program (e.g., no configured contexts), the tool will handle it gracefully, providing helpful error messages.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Feel free to submit issues, feature requests, or pull requests to improve the functionality of this tool. Contributions are always welcome!

Author

Gabor Puskas
GitHub
LinkedIn

contswi is designed to make Kubernetes context management fast and simple, enhancing the experience for developers and DevOps engineers working across multiple clusters and environments.