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Version: 0.15

Executing kubectl commands

Botkube allows you to execute kubectl commands on your Kubernetes cluster. By default, kubectl command execution is disabled. To enable this feature, set executors.{configuration-name}.kubectl.enabled: true in Executor configuration.

As suggested in help message, to execute kubectl commands, send message in following format in the channel where Botkube is already added or as a direct message to Botkube.

@Botkube {kubectl command with or without `kubectl` prefix} [--cluster-name {cluster_name}]
info

You can also prefix your commands with kubectl , kc or k.

caution

From version 0.17, one of the kubectl prefixes (kubectl , kc or k) will always be required.

This command needs to be executed from configured channel else use --cluster-name flag described in the Specify cluster name section.

get_pods get_pods

Interactive kubectl commands builder​

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 k|kc|kubectl from the configured channel where Botkube is added.

kubectl command builder

The following policies are applied:

  • Verbs, resource types and namespace dropdowns are narrowed down to the kubectl permissions in a given channel,
  • The kubectl command preview is displayed only if the command that you built is valid,
  • For resources that are namespace-scoped, the Namespace defined in executors.{alias}.kubectl.defaultNamespace is used. If not set, the default Namespace is selected.
info

Actionable notifications are only available for the Slack integration that supports interactive messages.

Checking allowed commands​

While deploying Botkube controller, you can specify which kubectl commands you want to allow Botkube to execute through the executors configuration.

To check which commands are allowed for users to execute through Botkube, run @Botkube commands list

commands_list

Specify cluster name​

If you have installed Botkube backend on multiple clusters, you can pass --cluster-name flag to execute kubectl command on specific cluster.

To get the list of all clusters configured in botkube, you can use the ping command.

ping

For cluster-specific response, use --cluster-name flag to specify the cluster's name on which command needs to be executed. Use of this flag allows you to get response from any channel or group where Botkube is added. The flag is ignored in notifier commands as they can be executed from the configured channel only.

flag_clustername_ping flag_clustername_ping flag_clustername_kubectl flag_clustername_kubectl

Filtering text output​

Use the --filter flag to filter the output of BotKube executor commands. This returns any lines matching the flag's provided value.

The --filter flag uses simple string matching. And, only works for BotKube executor commands that return text output, e.g. kubectl or commands list commands.

Filtering the commands list​

flag_filter_commands_list

Filtering kubectl output​

flag_filter_kubectl_get_nodes flag_filter_kubectl_logs

See Examples for the use cases.