k3d/docs/usage/kubeconfig.md

Handling Kubeconfigs

By default, k3d won't touch your kubeconfig without you telling it to do so. To get a kubeconfig set up for you to connect to a k3d cluster, you can go different ways.

??? question "What is the default kubeconfig?" We determine the path of the used or default kubeconfig in two ways:

1. Using the `KUBECONFIG` environment variable, if it specifies *exactly one* file
2. Using the default path (e.g. on Linux it's `#!bash $HOME/.kube/config`)

Getting the kubeconfig for a newly created cluster

1. Update your default kubeconfig upon cluster creation
   • #!bash k3d create cluster mycluster --update-kubeconfig
     • Note: this won't switch the current-context
2. Update your default kubeconfig after cluster creation
   • #!bash k3d get kubeconfig mycluster
     • Note: this won't switch the current-context
3. Update a different kubeconfig after cluster creation
   • #!bash k3d get kubeconfig mycluster --output some/other/file.yaml
     • Note: this won't switch the current-context
   • The file will be created if it doesn't exist

!!! info "Switching the current context" None of the above options switch the current-context. This is intended to be least intrusive, since the current-context has a global effect. You can switch the current-context directly with the get kubeconfig command by adding the --switch flag.

Removing cluster details from the kubeconfig

#!bash k3d delete cluster mycluster will always remove the details for mycluster from the default kubeconfig.

Handling multiple clusters

k3d get kubeconfig let's you specify one or more clusters via arguments or all via --all. All kubeconfigs will then be merged into a single file, which is either the default kubeconfig or the kubeconfig specified via --output FILE. Note, that with multiple cluster specified, the --switch flag will change the current context to the cluster which was last in the list.