Kubectl

The Kubectl executor plugin allows you to run the kubectl command directly in the communication platform.

Get started

By default, just the read-only kubectl commands are supported. For enabling commands that require create, update or delete rules, you need to create specific (Cluster)Role and (Cluster)RoleBinding and reference it in the RBAC configuration. To learn more, refer to the RBAC section.

Enable the plugin

Botkube Cloud

You can enable the plugin as a part of Botkube instance configuration.

1. If you don't have an existing Botkube instance, create a new one, according to the Installation docs.
2. From the Botkube Cloud homepage, click on a card of a given Botkube instance.
3. Navigate to the platform tab which you want to configure.
4. Click Add plugin button.
5. Select the Kubectl plugin.
6. Click Save button.

Self-hosted Botkube installation

The Kubectl plugin is hosted by the official Botkube plugin repository. First, make sure that the botkube repository is defined under plugins in the values.yaml file.

plugins:
  repositories:
    botkube:
      url: https://github.com/kubeshop/botkube/releases/download/v1.13.0/plugins-index.yaml

To enable Kubectl executor, add ``--set 'executors.k8s-default-tools.botkube/kubectl.enabled=true' to a given Botkube [install` command](/cli/commands/botkube_install).

Usage

To execute the kubectl commands, send message in following format in the channel where Botkube is already added:

@Botkube kubectl [verb] [resource] [flags]

Aliases

By default, k and kc are configured as aliases for the kubectl command, for both Botkube Cloud and self-hosted Botkube installations. You can use them on par with the kubectl command. To read more about aliases configuration, see the Alias section.

Interactive kubectl command builder

info

Interactive kubectl command builder is only available for the Slack. For other platforms, as an alternative, you can try the AI Assistant plugin which can execute kubectl commands based on prompts in natural language.

Use the interactive kubectl command builder to construct a kubectl command just by selecting items from dropdowns. This is especially useful on mobile when typing the command is harder.

The builder includes a resource name dropdown list. This is pre-populated with all the relevant resource names. It's great for discovering resources with the option to select them. E.g. Just grab a Pod name without needing to type or copy-and-paste.

To start the interactive kubectl command builder, run @Botkube kubectl from the configured channel where Botkube is added. You can also use any of the configured aliases - for example, the default k one, as illustrated below:

Limitations

Keep in mind that the interactive command builder may not support all the commands that you can run just by typing them directly in a chat window. The following policies are applied:

• Under verbs' dropdown, we display verbs that are defined under the interactiveBuilder.allowed.verbs configuration.

  tip

  The default verbs for the kubectl plugin found in the values.yaml file. If you ServiceAccount allow running other actions such as delete, you can add them directly under interactiveBuilder.allowed.verbs.

• Under resources' dropdown, we display resources that are defined under the interactiveBuilder.allowed.resources configuration and are allowed for already selected verb. For example, for the logs verb we display only pods, statefulsets, deployments, and daemonsets.

  tip

  The default resources for the kubectl plugin found in the values.yaml file.

  If you ServiceAccount allow access to more resources, you can add them directly under interactiveBuilder.allowed.resources.

• For resources that are namespace-scoped, under namespaces' dropdown, we display interactiveBuilder.allowed.namespaces if defined. If static namespaces are not specified, plugin needs to have access to fetch all Namespaces, otherwise Namespace dropdown won't be visible at all.

• The kubectl command preview is displayed only if the command that you built is valid, and you have permission to run it.

Configuration

This plugin supports the following configuration:

# Configures the default Namespace for executing Botkube `kubectl` commands. If not set, uses the 'default'.
defaultNamespace: "default"
# Configures the interactive kubectl command builder.
interactiveBuilder:
  allowed:
    # Configures which K8s namespace are displayed in namespace dropdown.
    # If not specified, plugin needs to have access to fetch all Namespaces, otherwise Namespace dropdown won't be visible at all.
    namespaces: ["default"]
    # Configures which `kubectl` methods are displayed in commands dropdown.
    verbs: ["api-resources", "api-versions", "cluster-info", "describe", "explain", "get", "logs", "top"]
    # Configures which K8s resource are displayed in resources dropdown.
    resources: ["deployments", "pods", "namespaces"]

The default configuration for Helm chart can be found in the values.yaml file.

Merging strategy

For all collected kubectl executors bindings, configuration properties are overridden based on the order of the binding list for a given channel. The priority is given to the last binding specified on the list. Empty properties are omitted.

Example

Consider such configuration in the Botkube self-hosted installation:

communications:
  "default-group":
    socketSlack:
      channels:
        "default":
          name: "random"
          bindings:
            executors:
              - kubectl-one
              - kubectl-two
              - kubectl-three

executors:
  "kubectl-one":
    kubectl:
      enabled: true
      config:
        defaultNamespace: "default"
        interactiveBuilder:
          allowed:
            verbs: ["api-resources", "api-versions", "cluster-info", "describe", "explain", "get", "logs", "top"]
            resources: ["deployments", "pods", "namespaces"]
  "kubectl-two":
    kubectl:
      enabled: true
      config:
        interactiveBuilder:
          allowed:
            namespaces: ["default"]
            verbs: ["api-resources", "top"]
  "kubectl-three":
    kubectl:
      enabled: false
      config:
        interactiveBuilder:
          allowed:
            namespaces: ["kube-system"]

We can see that:

• Only the default namespace is displayed in the interactive command builder. This is a result of merging kubectl-one and kubectl-two. The kubectl-three binding is not taken into account as it's disabled.
• Only the api-resources and top verbs are displayed in the interactive command builder as they are overridden by the kubectl-two.
• All resources defined in kubectl-one are displayed in the interactive command builder as other enabled bindings don't override this property.