TUI Features¶

Complete feature reference for k13d Terminal User Interface (TUI).

Dashboard Overview¶

The TUI provides a k9s-style terminal dashboard for Kubernetes management.

Main Interface¶

The TUI interface provides:

• Left Panel: Resource list with status indicators
• Right Panel: AI Assistant for natural language queries
• Bottom: Status bar with context, namespace, sort, and filter info

Navigation¶

Vim-Style Keybindings¶

Panel Navigation¶

Command Mode¶

Management Commands¶

Autocomplete¶

When typing a command, k13d shows autocomplete suggestions:

• Single match: Dimmed hint text appears next to cursor (press Tab to complete)
• Multiple matches: Dropdown overlay appears above the command bar
• Up/Down arrows: Navigate suggestions
• Tab or Enter: Select suggestion
• Esc: Dismiss dropdown
• Custom aliases from aliases.yaml are included in suggestions

Resource Actions¶

General Actions¶

Pod Actions¶

Deployment Actions¶

Node Actions¶

AI Assistant¶

AI Panel¶

The AI panel is accessible by pressing Tab to switch focus.

Chat History¶

AI conversations are preserved within each TUI session:

• Previous Q&A sessions are kept above, separated by visual dividers (────────────────────────────)
• Scroll up in the AI panel to review past conversations
• History is maintained for the duration of the TUI session

LLM Model Switching¶

Switch between configured AI model profiles:

• :model - Opens a modal showing all profiles (active marked with *)
• :model gpt-4o - Switch directly to a named profile

Model profiles are defined in ~/.config/k13d/config.yaml under the models section.

AI Actions¶

Tool Approval¶

When AI needs to execute a command, an approval dialog appears:

Filtering & Search¶

Filter Mode¶

Filter Syntax:

/nginx          # Contains "nginx"
/^nginx         # Starts with "nginx"
/nginx$         # Ends with "nginx"
/nginx.*running # Regex pattern

Resource Aliases¶

Define custom command aliases in ~/.config/k13d/aliases.yaml for quick resource navigation.

aliases:
  pp: pods
  dep: deployments
  svc: services
  sec: secrets
  cm: configmaps
  ds: daemonsets
  sts: statefulsets
  rs: replicasets
  cj: cronjobs

How It Works¶

1. Type :pp in the command bar → resolves to :pods and navigates to Pods view
2. Custom aliases appear in autocomplete suggestions alongside built-in commands
3. Use :alias to view all active aliases (built-in + custom)
4. If a custom alias conflicts with a built-in, the custom alias takes precedence

Alias Display¶

Type :alias to see the full alias table:

┌─ Aliases (Esc to close) ────────────────────────┐
│                                                  │
│   ALIAS     RESOURCE          SOURCE             │
│   ────      ────────          ──────             │
│   po        pods              built-in           │
│   svc       services          built-in           │
│   deploy    deployments       built-in           │
│   pp        pods              custom             │
│   sec       secrets           custom             │
│   cm        configmaps        custom             │
│                                                  │
│ Press Esc to close                               │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

See Configuration > Aliases for more details.

Custom Hotkeys¶

Define custom keyboard shortcuts in ~/.config/k13d/hotkeys.yaml that execute external CLI commands.

hotkeys:
  stern-logs:
    shortCut: "Shift-L"
    description: "Stern multi-pod logs"
    scopes: [pods, deployments]
    command: stern
    args: ["-n", "$NAMESPACE", "$NAME"]
    dangerous: false

  port-forward-8080:
    shortCut: "Ctrl-P"
    description: "Port forward to 8080"
    scopes: [pods, services]
    command: kubectl
    args: [port-forward, -n, "$NAMESPACE", "$NAME", "8080:8080"]
    dangerous: false

Hotkeys support $NAMESPACE, $NAME, and $CONTEXT variable expansion. Set dangerous: true to require confirmation before execution.

See Configuration > Hotkeys for the full reference.

Per-Resource Sort Defaults¶

Configure default sort column and direction in ~/.config/k13d/views.yaml. Sort preferences are applied automatically when navigating to each resource type.

views:
  pods:
    sortColumn: AGE
    sortAscending: false         # Newest first
  deployments:
    sortColumn: NAME
    sortAscending: true          # Alphabetical
  services:
    sortColumn: TYPE
    sortAscending: true
  nodes:
    sortColumn: STATUS
    sortAscending: true

k13d automatically detects column types for proper sorting:

• Numeric: RESTARTS, COUNT, DESIRED, CURRENT, AVAILABLE
• Ready format: READY (e.g., 1/2, 3/3) — compares by ratio
• Age format: AGE (e.g., 5d, 3h, 10m) — converts to seconds
• String: NAME, STATUS, TYPE — case-insensitive alphabetical

See Configuration > Views for more details.

Plugin System¶

k13d supports external plugins that extend the TUI with custom commands, following the k9s plugin pattern.

How It Works¶

1. Define plugins in ~/.config/k13d/plugins.yaml
2. Each plugin binds a keyboard shortcut to an external CLI command
3. Plugins are scoped to specific resource types (or all with "*")
4. When you press the shortcut on a matching resource, the command runs with resource context (name, namespace, image, etc.) automatically injected

Viewing Plugins¶

Type :plugins in the TUI to see all configured plugins:

┌─ Plugins (Esc to close) ────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Configured Plugins                                          │
│                                                             │
│   NAME            SHORTCUT     SCOPES               DESC   │
│   ────            ────────     ──────               ─────  │
│   dive            Ctrl-I       pods                 Dive…  │
│   debug           Shift-D      pods                 Debug… │
│   port-forward    Shift-F      pods, services       Port…  │
│   stern           Shift-S      deployments          Stre…  │
│   lens            Ctrl-O       *                    Open…  │
│                                                             │
│   Total: 5 plugins loaded                                   │
│                                                             │
│ Config: ~/.config/k13d/plugins.yaml                         │
│ Variables: $NAMESPACE, $NAME, $CONTEXT, $IMAGE,             │
│            $LABELS.key, $ANNOTATIONS.key                    │
│                                                             │
│ Press Esc to close                                          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Plugin Configuration¶

plugins:
  dive:
    shortCut: "Ctrl-I"
    description: "Dive into container image layers"
    scopes: [pods]
    command: dive
    args: [$IMAGE]

  debug:
    shortCut: "Shift-D"
    description: "Debug pod with ephemeral container"
    scopes: [pods]
    command: kubectl
    args: [debug, -n, $NAMESPACE, $NAME, -it, --image=busybox]
    confirm: true

  port-forward:
    shortCut: "Shift-F"
    description: "Port-forward to localhost:8080"
    scopes: [pods, services]
    command: kubectl
    args: [port-forward, -n, $NAMESPACE, $NAME, "8080:80"]
    background: true
    confirm: true

  stern:
    shortCut: "Shift-S"
    description: "Stream logs with stern (by app label)"
    scopes: [deployments]
    command: stern
    args: [-n, $NAMESPACE, $LABELS.app]

  lens:
    shortCut: "Ctrl-O"
    description: "Open in Lens"
    scopes: ["*"]
    command: lens
    args: [--context, $CONTEXT]
    background: true

Execution Modes¶

Confirmation¶

Plugins with confirm: true show a modal before execution, displaying the expanded command with all variables resolved. This is recommended for destructive or resource-intensive operations.

Available Variables¶

See the Configuration Guide for the full reference.

YAML Viewer¶

View resource YAML manifests with syntax highlighting. Press y on any selected resource to open.

Features¶

Keyboard Shortcuts¶

Log Viewer¶

Real-time log streaming with ANSI color support. Press l on a pod to open.

Features¶

Keyboard Shortcuts¶

Multi-Container Pods¶

When a pod has multiple containers, k13d displays a container selector before streaming logs. Select the desired container with j/k and press Enter.

Terminal/Shell¶

Execute commands directly inside pod containers. Press x on a pod to open a shell session.

Features¶

How It Works¶

1. Press x on a selected pod
2. If multi-container, select the target container
3. TUI suspends and opens an interactive shell
4. After exiting the shell, TUI restores automatically

Port Forward¶

Forward container ports to your local machine. Press p on a pod to start port forwarding.

Features¶

Usage¶

1. Select a pod and press p
2. Enter the port mapping (e.g., 8080:80 for local 8080 → container 80)
3. Port forwarding starts in the background
4. Access the service at http://localhost:8080

Context Switching¶

Switch between Kubernetes clusters directly from the TUI.

Usage¶

• Type :context or :ctx to open the context switcher
• A modal displays all available contexts from your kubeconfig
• Current context is marked with *
• Select a context and press Enter to switch

What Happens on Switch¶

1. Kubernetes client reconnects to the new cluster
2. Namespace selector resets and reloads available namespaces
3. All resource data refreshes for the new cluster
4. Status bar updates to show the new context name

Resource Highlighting¶

Visual indicators for resource status using the Tokyo Night color scheme.

Help System¶

Built-in help for keybindings and commands. Press ? at any time to view.

Help Modal¶

The help modal shows context-sensitive keyboard shortcuts:

• Global shortcuts: Available everywhere (navigation, quit, help)
• Resource actions: Available when a resource is selected (YAML, describe, delete)
• Resource-specific: Actions specific to the current resource type (logs for pods, scale for deployments)
• AI shortcuts: AI-related actions (analyze, explain)
• Plugin shortcuts: Custom plugin shortcuts for the current resource scope

i18n Support¶

Multi-language interface support for the TUI and AI responses.

Supported Languages¶

Configuration¶

language: ko  # Korean

What Gets Translated¶

• TUI interface: Menu labels, help text, status messages, keyboard shortcut descriptions
• AI responses: When the language is set to non-English, the AI assistant automatically responds in the configured language
• Error messages: Common error messages and warnings

Fallback Behavior¶

If a translation key is not found for the configured language, k13d falls back to English. If the English translation is also missing, the raw key name is displayed.

Tokyo Night Theme¶

k13d TUI uses a Tokyo Night-inspired color scheme:

Quick Reference¶

┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐
│           k13d TUI Quick Reference        │
├──────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Navigation                               │
│   j/k          Move up/down              │
│   g/G          First/Last item           │
│   Tab          Switch panel              │
│   :            Command mode              │
│   /            Filter                    │
│                                          │
│ Actions                                  │
│   y            View YAML                 │
│   d            Describe                  │
│   l            Logs                      │
│   x            Exec/Shell                │
│   s            Scale                     │
│   r            Restart                   │
│   Ctrl+D       Delete                    │
│                                          │
│ AI                                       │
│   Shift+L      AI Analyze                │
│   h            Explain This              │
│   Y/N          Approve/Reject            │
│                                          │
│ Commands                                 │
│   :alias       View aliases              │
│   :model       Switch AI model           │
│   :plugins     View plugins              │
│                                          │
│ Global                                   │
│   ?            Help                      │
│   Esc          Cancel/Back               │
│   q            Quit                      │
└──────────────────────────────────────────┘