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About this tool
Assemble correct kubectl commands with namespaces, label selectors, output formats and dry-run flags — no man page needed.
The Kubectl Command Builder assembles syntactically correct kubectl commands — get, describe, delete, logs, exec, apply, scale, port-forward and rollout restart — with the namespace, label selector, output format and dry-run flags in the right places, shell-quoted where needed. It enforces the same flag rules kubectl does, rejecting -A combined with -n, a resource name combined with -l, and the removed boolean --dry-run form. Handy for engineers who touch clusters occasionally and forget flag order and compatibility.
Open Kubectl Command Builder on AltFTool — it loads instantly in your browser.
Pick a Verb — get, describe, delete, logs, exec, apply, scale, port-forward or rollout restart — and a Resource type such as pods or deployments where it applies.
Fill the verb-aware fields: Resource name (blank = all), Namespace (-n), Label selector (-l), Output format (-o), --dry-run, or the logs toggles Follow log stream (-f) and Previous container instance (--previous).
Read the Assembled command, shell-quoted with conflicting flags rejected and the reason shown, then press Copy command.
Conflicting flags (-A with -n, name with -l, nodes with a namespace) are rejected with the reason, not silently emitted.
Only the flags that apply to the chosen verb appear, so you cannot attach -o yaml to exec or a selector to port-forward.
Arguments with spaces or parentheses, like set-based selectors, are single-quoted automatically.
client validates and prints the object locally without contacting the cluster, while server sends the request through the full API path — authentication, admission webhooks, validation — but persists nothing. Server dry-run catches problems client mode cannot, such as admission policy rejections; the bare boolean --dry-run flag was removed in kubectl 1.18.
Because they contradict each other: -n scopes the request to one namespace while -A (--all-namespaces) asks for every namespace. kubectl also refuses to fetch a resource by name across all namespaces, since names are only unique within a namespace.
Use kubectl logs <pod> --previous, which reads the log of the last terminated container instance instead of the current one. For pods with multiple containers add -c <container-name>, and -f to stream; without --previous a freshly restarted container shows only the new (usually empty) log.
Add -o yaml or -o json to read verbs like get. -o wide adds extra table columns (node, IP), -o name prints just resource/name for scripting, and -o jsonpath='{...}' extracts specific fields — for example -o jsonpath='{.items[*].metadata.name}' lists only names.