Kube9 VS Code Extension

Status

Available on the Visual Studio Marketplace — actively maintained (open source).

Overview

Kube9 – Kubernetes Cluster Manager runs locally against your kubeconfig: cluster tree navigation, YAML editing and workloads, dashboards and terminals, Helm, streaming pod logs, events, port forwarding, drift-aware Argo CD actions, metrics/monitoring uplift when kube9-operator is present, cluster organizer tooling, workload launch/apply, and more—the marketplace description reads “Proactive Kubernetes Intelligence – Right in Your IDE.”

With kube9-operator installed, tooling unlocks scheduled Well-Architected Framework assessments and operator health summaries from in-cluster metadata (see the repository for full behavior).

Optional product telemetry, when VS Code/marketplace settings allow it, is limited to coarse feature usage/outcomes—not cluster-identifying details, manifests, log lines, kubeconfig paths, or API bodies (privacy section in README).

Key Features (high level)

• Multi-cluster explorer — Navigate clusters namespaces and workloads via kubeconfig. Without kube9-operator installs you still operate clusters normally; the Helm chart activates operated mode surfaced by persisted assessment/metrics status (see kube9-operator chart README).
• Resource lifecycle — Describe view/edit YAML scale restart logs delete workloads from tree context menus and the palette.
• Helm & Argo CD — Helm package manager plus Argo CD applications with sync/refresh actions, drift details, and an interactive resource graph (dagre layout, sync/health badges, per-node actions).
• Pod logs & events — kubectl-backed log streams and configurable cluster events workflows.
• Port forwards dashboards terminals — Port-forward dashboards and terminal tooling where bundled.

Privacy summaries appear in Overview; authoritative detail stays in the upstream README.

Installation

For Users

1. Open VS Code
2. Go to Extensions (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + X)
3. Search for "kube9"
4. Click Install

For Developers

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/alto9/kube9-vscode.git
cd kube9-vscode

# Install dependencies (requires Node.js 22+)
npm install

# Compile TypeScript
npm run compile

# Press F5 in VS Code to open Extension Development Host

Optional: Install Kube9 Operator for Enhanced Monitoring

helm repo add kube9 https://charts.kube9.io
helm repo update
helm install kube9-operator kube9/kube9-operator \
  --namespace kube9-system \
  --create-namespace

Configuration

Configure Kube9 in VS Code Settings. Common options:

{
  "kube9.debugMode": false,
  "kube9.serverUrl": "https://api.kube9.io",
  "kube9.operatorNamespace": null,
  "kube9.timeout.connection": 10000,
  "kube9.timeout.apiRequest": 30000,
  "kube9.errors.showDetails": false,
  "kube9.errors.throttleWindow": 5000
}

• kube9.operatorNamespace: Leave unset for auto-detection, or set a string (all clusters) or an object mapping context name → namespace if the operator is not in the default location.
• Operator features: Assessment and operator health views are available when the kube9-operator is installed and its status ConfigMap is readable with your kubeconfig.

Feature guides

• Pod logs viewer
• Events viewer
• Argo CD applications
• Cluster manager
• YAML editor
• Describe views

Detailed Argo CD setup and RBAC: upstream integration guide.

First Steps

1. Open Kube9 Cluster Manager in the Activity Bar, then the Clusters view.
2. Confirm your kubeconfig is available (default: ~/.kube/config).
3. Expand a cluster and namespaces, or switch the active context from the tree.
4. Use context menus or the Command Palette for actions such as View Logs, assessments, Argo CD sync, and port forwarding.
5. Open an Argo CD application to use the Graph tab for topology or Details for overview and drift.

Links

• Visual Studio Marketplace
• GitHub Repository
• Report Issues