Kubernetes cheatsheet

Context and namespace

Command	Description
`kubectl config get-contexts`	List contexts
`kubectl config use-context NAME`	Switch cluster
`kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=ns`	Default namespace
`kubectl get ns`	List namespaces

Get and describe

Command	Description
`kubectl get pods -A`	All pods, all namespaces
`kubectl get pods,svc,deploy -n app`	Multiple resource types
`kubectl get pods -o wide`	Node, IP, status
`kubectl describe pod POD -n app`	Events, conditions, mounts
`kubectl get events -n app --sort-by=.lastTimestamp`	Recent events

Logs and exec

Command	Description
`kubectl logs POD -n app -f`	Follow pod logs
`kubectl logs POD -c CONTAINER -n app`	Specific container
`kubectl logs POD --previous -n app`	Logs from crashed container
`kubectl exec -it POD -n app -- sh`	Shell in running pod

Apply, scale, rollout

Command	Description
`kubectl apply -f manifest.yaml`	Create or update resources
`kubectl delete -f manifest.yaml`	Delete from manifest
`kubectl scale deploy/APP --replicas=3 -n app`	Scale deployment
`kubectl rollout status deploy/APP -n app`	Wait for rollout
`kubectl rollout undo deploy/APP -n app`	Rollback deployment

Debugging

kubectl run tmp --rm -it --image=busybox -- sh
kubectl debug -it POD -n app --image=busybox --target=CONTAINER
kubectl port-forward svc/myapp 8080:80 -n app
kubectl top pods -n app
kubectl top nodes

krew — install and common plugins

# Install krew: https://krew.sigs.k8s.io/docs/user-guide/setup/install/

kubectl krew install stern ctx ns tree view-secret neat popeye

# stern — multi-pod log tail (essential for debugging)
stern . -n app                          # all pods in namespace
stern -l app=web -n app -c nginx        # by label, one container
stern POD_PREFIX -n app --since 5m      # recent logs only

# ctx / ns — fast context and namespace switch (kubectx / kubens)
kubectl ctx                             # list contexts
kubectl ctx prod-cluster
kubectl ns app

# tree — resource hierarchy
kubectl tree deploy/myapp -n app

# view-secret — decode secrets on CLI
kubectl view-secret secret/mysecret -n app

# neat — cleaner YAML output (remove managed fields noise)
kubectl get deploy myapp -o yaml | kubectl neat

# popeye — cluster hygiene report
kubectl popeye -n app

Other helpful CLIs

Tool	Description
k9s	Terminal UI for cluster navigation
helm	Chart installs — see Helm lab
kubectl debug	Ephemeral debug containers (built-in)

Cluster health

Command	Description
`kubectl get nodes`	Node Ready status
`kubectl get componentstatuses`	Deprecated; use node/control-plane checks
`kubectl cluster-info`	API server and kube-dns addresses
`kubectl auth can-i create pods -n app`	RBAC check

Pro tips

kubectl describe Events section explains most pod failures
--previous logs show why the last container crashed
Install stern via krew — faster than looping kubectl logs
Always set -n NAMESPACE — wrong namespace is a common mistake
Helm releases: use the Helm lab, not raw YAML guesswork

Practice scenarios

Hands-on Kubernetes scenarios on live Linux VMs: kubernetes