TUI Dashboard¶

The Terminal User Interface (TUI) provides a k9s-like experience for managing Kubernetes clusters directly from your terminal.

Overview¶

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ k13d │ Context: minikube │ Namespace: default │ ? for help     │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Pods (8)                        │ │ AI Assistant            │ │
│ │                                 │ │                         │ │
│ │ NAME            READY  STATUS   │ │ Ask me anything about   │ │
│ │ nginx-abc123    1/1    Running  │ │ your cluster...         │ │
│ │ api-def456      2/2    Running  │ │                         │ │
│ │ db-ghi789       1/1    Running  │ │ > Why is nginx failing? │ │
│ │                                 │ │                         │ │
│ └─────────────────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────┘ │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ :pods   Filter: /nginx                                          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Getting Started¶

Launch TUI Mode¶

# Default mode
k13d

# With specific namespace
k13d -n kube-system

# With all namespaces
k13d -A

k13d uses the standard Kubernetes client loading rules for kubeconfig and current context. Use KUBECONFIG or your current kubeconfig context instead of --kubeconfig / --context flags.

Navigation¶

Basic Navigation¶

Resource Navigation¶

Namespace quick-select keeps 0 pinned to all namespaces and reorders ++1-9++ so your most recently used namespaces move to the front, similar to k9s.

Panel Focus¶

AI Panel Width¶

Resource Commands¶

Viewing Resources¶

Namespace Commands¶

Management Commands¶

Autocomplete¶

When typing a command, k13d provides smart autocomplete:

• Single match: Dimmed hint text appears (press Tab to accept)
• Multiple matches: Dropdown overlay appears above command bar
• Up / Down to navigate
• Tab or Enter to select
• Esc to dismiss
• Custom aliases from aliases.yaml included in results

Resource Aliases¶

Define custom command shortcuts in ~/.config/k13d/aliases.yaml:

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

Usage¶

• Type :pp to navigate to Pods (alias resolves automatically)
• Type :alias to see all active aliases (built-in + custom)
• Custom aliases integrate with autocomplete — type :p and press Tab
• If a custom alias conflicts with a built-in, the custom alias wins

Resource Actions¶

General Actions¶

Pod-Specific Actions¶

Deployment Actions¶

Node Actions¶

Node View¶

• :nodes shows whether a node is acting as control-plane or worker in the ROLE column.
• CPU and MEM prefer live node metrics. When metrics-server is unavailable, k13d falls back to scheduled pod requests and prefixes the cell with ~.
• GPU shows scheduled GPU requests versus allocatable GPU capacity. Kubernetes metrics-server does not provide live GPU utilization, so this column is request-based by design.

AI Assistant¶

Using the AI Panel¶

1. Press Tab to focus on the AI panel
2. Type your question in the boxed prompt area
3. Press Enter to send
4. Press Shift+Tab to move into transcript history
5. With the AI panel open, return focus to the table and press Enter on a row to attach or detach that resource as AI context
6. Use J / K or ++pgup++ / ++pgdn++ to browse older replies
7. Press Tab to return to the prompt

The prompt area is boxed separately from the transcript so it is easier to see whether you are typing a new message or browsing previous output.

You can keep the table readable while chatting by resizing the right-side AI panel with Alt+H, Alt+L, and Alt+0, or temporarily expand it with Alt+F and restore the split layout with the same shortcut.

When a row is attached to AI, it keeps a subtle highlight in the table and stays available to the assistant even if you navigate to another resource view.

Agentic AI is kubectl-first by default. bash and MCP tools are opt-in through config.yaml, and unsupported interactive kubectl flows such as kubectl edit, kubectl port-forward, and kubectl exec -it are blocked instead of shown as approvable actions.

Chat History¶

Previous Q&A sessions are preserved within each TUI session. Press Shift+Tab to focus the transcript, then use:

• J / K or Up / Down to move line by line
• ++pgup++ / ++pgdn++ to move by a page
• G / Shift+G to jump to the top or bottom
• Tab to return to the prompt

Model Switching¶

Switch AI models on the fly:

• Type :model to see all configured profiles
• Type :model gpt-4o to switch directly
• Active model marked with * in selector

Use Shift+O to edit the current active LLM connection from the TUI settings modal.

For the exact file persistence behavior, including when TUI updates llm, when it syncs the active profile, and how :model rewrites active_model, see Model Settings & Storage.

AI Actions on Resources¶

Tool Approval¶

When AI requests to execute a command:

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Decision Required                            │
│                                              │
│ kubectl get pods -n production               │
│                                              │
│ Reject (N / Esc)      Approve (Y / Enter)    │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The request opens as a centered modal, matching the Web UI approval flow more closely.

Filtering and Search¶

Filter Syntax¶

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

Quick Filter¶

Status Bar¶

The status bar shows:

:pods [1/25] │ Filter: nginx │ Context: production │ NS: default

• Current resource type
• Selection index / total count
• Active filter
• Kubernetes context
• Current namespace

Plugins¶

Extend k13d with external CLI tools via ~/.config/k13d/plugins.yaml. Plugins bind keyboard shortcuts to commands that run with the selected resource's context.

Quick Start¶

Create ~/.config/k13d/plugins.yaml:

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

Then in the TUI:

1. Navigate to Pods (:pods)
2. Select a pod with j/k
3. Press Ctrl+I to launch dive with the pod's container image

Using Plugins¶

Example Plugins¶

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

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

  # Background port-forward
  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

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

  # Open in external tool (all resources)
  lens:
    shortCut: "Ctrl-O"
    description: "Open in Lens"
    scopes: ["*"]
    command: lens
    args: [--context, $CONTEXT]
    background: true

See Configuration > Plugins for the full reference including all available variables.

Custom Hotkeys¶

Define custom keyboard shortcuts in ~/.config/k13d/hotkeys.yaml to execute external commands:

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

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

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

Per-Resource Sort Defaults¶

Configure default sort in ~/.config/k13d/views.yaml:

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

Sort preferences are applied automatically when navigating to each resource. k13d detects column types (numeric, age, ready format, string) for proper sorting.

Context Switching¶

Switch between Kubernetes clusters:

1. Type :context or :ctx
2. Select from available contexts (current marked with *)
3. Press Enter to switch

On switch, k13d reconnects to the new cluster, reloads namespaces, and refreshes all resource data.

Customization¶

Theme Configuration¶

k13d uses a Tokyo Night-inspired theme by default.

Configuration File¶

# ~/.config/k13d/config.yaml

ui:
  theme: tokyo-night  # or: light, dark, nord
  refresh_interval: 5s
  show_header: true
  show_status: true

Keyboard Shortcuts Reference¶

Global¶

Navigation¶

Actions¶

AI¶

Tips and Tricks¶

1. Quick Namespace Switch¶

:ns default
:ns -          # Previous namespace

2. Resource Shortcuts¶

:po           # pods
:svc          # services
:deploy       # deployments
:no           # nodes
:alias        # view all aliases
:model        # switch AI model
:plugins      # view plugins

3. Filter + Action¶

/error        # Filter to errors
Shift+L       # AI analyze all matching

4. Vim-Style Navigation¶

If you're familiar with Vim:

• j/k for up/down
• gg for top
• G for bottom
• / for search

Next Steps¶

• Web Dashboard - Web UI alternative
• Keyboard Shortcuts - Complete shortcut reference
• AI Assistant - AI features