KubeLens
An explainable runtime debugger for Kubernetes straight inside VS Code.
Understand why your pods are failing, don't just stare at them.
👁️ Overview
When a deployment fails, jumping back and forth between a clunky CLI and complex dashboards to figure out what happened breaks your flow. KubeLens solves this by acting as a native "senior engineer" residing in your IDE.
It connects directly to your existing ~/.kube/config, parses your contexts recursively down to the exact failing Pod, and provides a rich HTML explanation of precisely why it's crashing and how to fix it.
KubeLens was deliberately designed exclusively for Kubernetes observability—fast, lightweight, and living comfortably in your editor's sidebar.
✨ Features
- Context-Aware Tree Navigation: Native Explorer panels dissecting your clusters into Namespaces and Pods cleanly. Switch Contexts seamlessly.
- Rule-Based Insight Engine: Run
"Explain Pod" to instantly analyze crash loops, detect missing environment variables, catch port conflicts, and diagnose ECONNREFUSED dependency panics.
- One-Click Native Logs: Spawn a VS Code integrated terminal actively tailing
kubectl logs -f specifically targeted at your workload.
- Direct Shell Injection: Spin up an interactive
sh or bash execution right inside your running Pod with a single inline button click.
- Dark-Mode Friendly Branding: Aesthetic and dynamic icons that respect your custom theme configuration natively.
🚀 Getting Started
Because KubeLens runs locally natively against your machine's kubectl CLI authentication bindings, there is ZERO external configuration required. If kubectl works in your terminal, KubeLens works.
- Ensure the extension is running (hit
F5 in the Extension Host if actively debugging).
- Open the KubeLens activity bar (the shutter logo on your left).
- Expand Clusters, select your desired Namespace, and drill down into the Pods list.
- Click the magnifying glass "Explain" icon on any Pod to launch the Insights Panel.
🧠 Diagnostic Engine (Under the Hood)
The extension relies on entirely local analysis, making it incredibly fast.
- Fetching raw Pod logs using the
@kubernetes/client-node TypeScript bindings.
- Slicing structural metadata (i.e.,
RestartCount > 3, Phase patterns).
- Piping data into custom heuristics capable of surfacing the exact fix you need with a defined level of confidence.
🛠️ Architecture & Contributing
KubeLens is powered structurally using the VS Code Extension API.
src/ui/KubeLensTreeDataProvider.ts: Translates Kubernetes metadata dynamically into standard BaseTreeItem nodes.src/kubernetes/kubernetesClient.ts: An encapsulated ESM-safe interface querying your local configuration efficiently.src/analysis/engine.ts: The core diagnostic mapper predicting and framing solutions.
Built tightly explicitly for scale and speed inside VS Code.
