Kubernetes Commands Cheatsheet

Overview

This card collects the kubectl commands needed to inspect, deploy, debug, and recover workloads. The full API reference is at kubectl api-resources; this page covers the 20 percent you use 80 percent of the time. For the container layer underneath, see docker-commands.

Get and describe

Read state before changing it.

Command	What it does
kubectl get pods	List pods in current namespace.
kubectl get pods -A	List pods across all namespaces.
kubectl get pods -n staging	List pods in staging namespace.
kubectl get pods -o wide	Include node, IP, and age.
kubectl get pods -l app=api	Filter by label selector.
kubectl get all -n staging	All resources in a namespace.
kubectl get nodes	List cluster nodes and their status.
kubectl describe pod api-6f9d4 -n prod	Full events and conditions for one pod.
kubectl describe node worker-1	Node capacity, allocations, and events.
kubectl get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp'	Recent cluster events, newest last.

kubectl describe is the first stop when a pod is Pending or CrashLoopBackOff; the Events section shows exactly what went wrong.

Apply, delete, and rollout

Manage resources declaratively; apply over create.

Command	What it does
kubectl apply -f deploy.yaml	Create or update resources from a file.
kubectl apply -f ./k8s/	Apply all manifests in a directory.
kubectl delete -f deploy.yaml	Delete resources declared in a file.
kubectl delete pod api-6f9d4	Force-delete a pod; it will be recreated by the controller.
kubectl rollout status deployment/api	Block until a rollout finishes.
kubectl rollout history deployment/api	Show revision history.
kubectl rollout undo deployment/api	Roll back to the previous revision.
kubectl rollout undo deployment/api --to-revision=3	Roll back to a specific revision.
kubectl scale deployment api --replicas=3	Scale a deployment.
kubectl set image deployment/api api=myapp:v2	Update the container image.

Prefer kubectl apply over kubectl create; apply is idempotent and works for both create and update.

Logs and exec

Reach inside running pods to read output and run commands.

Command	What it does
kubectl logs api-6f9d4	Print log output for a pod.
kubectl logs -f api-6f9d4	Stream logs.
kubectl logs -f api-6f9d4 -c sidecar	Stream logs from a specific container in a multi-container pod.
kubectl logs --previous api-6f9d4	Logs from the previous (crashed) container instance.
kubectl logs -l app=api --tail=50	Last 50 lines across all pods matching a label.
kubectl exec -it api-6f9d4 -- bash	Open an interactive shell inside a pod.
kubectl exec api-6f9d4 -- env	Print environment variables.
kubectl exec api-6f9d4 -- cat /etc/resolv.conf	Read a file without entering the pod interactively.
kubectl cp api-6f9d4:/app/logs/err.log ./err.log	Copy a file out of a pod.

Use kubectl logs --previous when a pod restarted before you could check it; it reads the terminated instance’s logs.

Port-forward and proxy

Access services locally without exposing them publicly.

Command	What it does
kubectl port-forward pod/api-6f9d4 8080:8080	Forward local port 8080 to pod port 8080.
kubectl port-forward svc/api 8080:80	Forward through a Service.
kubectl port-forward deployment/api 8080:8080	Forward through a Deployment (picks a random pod).
kubectl proxy	Start a proxy to the Kubernetes API at localhost:8001.

kubectl port-forward svc/api 5432:5432 is the standard way to connect a local Postgres client to a cluster database.

Common selectors and resource shortnames

Save keystrokes with short names and label selectors.

Full name	Shortname	Example
pods	po	kubectl get po
services	svc	kubectl get svc
deployments	deploy	kubectl get deploy
replicasets	rs	kubectl get rs
configmaps	cm	kubectl get cm
namespaces	ns	kubectl get ns
nodes	no	kubectl get no
persistentvolumeclaims	pvc	kubectl get pvc
ingresses	ing	kubectl get ing

Label selector syntax: -l key=value, -l 'key in (a,b)', -l key!=value. Field selectors: --field-selector status.phase=Running.

Common gotchas

• kubectl apply without a namespace uses default. Set the namespace in the manifest metadata or always pass -n.
• kubectl delete pod on a pod managed by a Deployment deletes the pod but the controller immediately creates a replacement. Delete the Deployment to stop the recreation loop.
• kubectl get pods hides pods in other namespaces silently. Use -A or -n <ns> to avoid investigating the wrong namespace.
• kubectl exec requires the container to have bash or sh. Minimal images (distroless, scratch) do not; use an ephemeral debug container with kubectl debug.
• kubectl rollout undo only rolls back one step. Store manifest history in git; use a specific --to-revision for predictable rollbacks.
• kubectl port-forward exits silently when the pod restarts. For persistent tunnels, use a local proxy or a proper Ingress.

Related

• docker-commands
• bash-one-liners
• gh-cli
• shell
• github-pages
• Cheatsheets