Kubernetes kubectl CLI Cheat Sheet

Essential kubectl commands for cluster inspection, pods, deployments, services, debugging, and config

Cluster & Context Management

Inspect cluster state and switch namespaces/contexts

Display current kubeconfig context

kubectl config current-context

Switch to different context

kubectl config use-context <cluster-name>

Set default namespace for current context

kubectl config set-context --current --namespace=<ns>

Display cluster info and endpoints

kubectl cluster-info

List, inspect, log, and troubleshoot active pods

List pods with IP and node placement

kubectl get pods -o wide -n <namespace>

Tail real-time logs from pod container

kubectl logs -f <pod-name> -c <container-name> --tail=100

Interactive shell inside running pod

kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -- /bin/sh

Describe pod events & failure reasons

kubectl describe pod <pod-name>

Forward local port to remote pod

kubectl port-forward pod/<pod-name> 8080:80

Manage application workloads and traffic routing

Scale deployment replicas

kubectl scale deployment/<app> --replicas=3

Trigger zero-downtime rolling restart

kubectl rollout restart deployment/<app>

Check rollout status / history

kubectl rollout status deployment/<app>
kubectl rollout history deployment/<app>

Rollback to previous revision

kubectl rollout undo deployment/<app>

List all services and ClusterIPs

kubectl get svc -A

Apply manifest file or URL

kubectl apply -f ./deployment.yaml

Extract resource manifest as clean YAML

kubectl get deployment/<app> -o yaml > app.yaml

Delete all pods in Error or Evicted state

kubectl delete pods --field-selector=status.phase=Failed -A

Top CPU and Memory resource usage

kubectl top nodes
kubectl top pods -A