Get started with Pulumi and Kubernetes

Configure access to Kubernetes

Pulumi’s CLI needs access to a Kubernetes cluster to manage cloud resources.

You must have access to a Kubernetes cluster—either a local cluster (such as Minikube, kind, or Docker Desktop) or a cloud-managed cluster (such as GKE, AKS, or EKS).

You also need kubectl installed and configured to access your cluster.

Testing access

To test that your Kubernetes cluster access is configured properly, run:

$ kubectl cluster-info

> kubectl cluster-info

If your cluster’s control plane and services are printed, your configuration is correct. If not, read on:

Kubernetes control plane is running at https://127.0.0.1:6443
CoreDNS is running at https://127.0.0.1:6443/api/v1/namespaces/kube-system/services/kube-dns:dns/proxy

You can also verify you have access to cluster resources:

$ kubectl get nodes
$ kubectl auth can-i get pods

> kubectl get nodes
> kubectl auth can-i get pods

How Pulumi accesses your cluster

Pulumi uses the same kubeconfig file that kubectl uses (typically ~/.kube/config). If you can run kubectl get nodes, Pulumi will work automatically.

You can verify which context Pulumi will use:

$ kubectl config current-context

> kubectl config current-context

Alternative approaches

If you need to use a specific kubeconfig file or context, you can set:

$ export KUBECONFIG="$HOME/path/to/kubeconfig"

> $env:KUBECONFIG = "C:\path\to\kubeconfig"

Or specify the context in your Pulumi stack configuration:

$ pulumi config set kubernetes:context my-cluster-context

> pulumi config set kubernetes:context my-cluster-context

For detailed information on Pulumi’s use of Kubernetes credentials, see Kubernetes Setup.