qb 0.3.4

EMACS for Kubernetes — a powerful, extensible terminal UI for managing Kubernetes clusters
qb-0.3.4 is not a library.

qb

EMACS for Kubernetes.

A keyboard-driven terminal UI for managing Kubernetes clusters. Single binary, native K8s API, no kubectl dependency.

┌ prod-cluster > All Namespaces > Deployments ───────────────── ⟳ just now ┐
├───────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Overview             │ NAME             NAMESPACE    READY  UP-TO-DATE  │
│  Favorites (3)        │▶ api-gateway     production   3/3    3           │
│  Port Forwards        │  auth-service    production   2/2    2           │
│  Profiles             │  web-frontend    production   5/5    5           │
│ WORKLOADS             │  coredns         kube-system  2/2    2           │
│  Deployments (12)     │  metrics-server  monitoring   1/1    1           │
│  StatefulSets (2)     │                                                  │
│  Pods (24)            │                                                  │
│ NETWORK               │                                                  │
│  Services (8)         │                                                  │
│ CONFIG                │                                                  │
│  Secrets              │                                                  │
│ CERT-MANAGER.IO       │                                                  │
│  Certificate          │                                                  │
│  ClusterIssuer        │                                                  │
├───────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ e Edit  l Logs  D Delete  F PortFwd  * Star  / Filter  ? Help  q Quit    │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Why qb

Most Kubernetes dashboards are web apps that need a running backend, a browser, and a pile of YAML to deploy. kubectl is powerful but context-switching between commands and mentally tracking state across namespaces is slow.

qb gives you a single binary that connects directly to the K8s API server through your kubeconfig. You see everything at once -- resources, logs, port forwards, events -- and act on any of it without leaving the terminal. It discovers Custom Resources automatically, so third-party operators (cert-manager, Argo, Istio, etc.) show up in the sidebar with zero configuration.

Features

Browse

  • 26 built-in resource types across Workloads, Network, Config, Storage, RBAC, and Cluster categories
  • Custom Resources discovered automatically from CRDs, grouped by API group in the sidebar
  • All namespaces by default with a namespace column; narrow with n
  • Cluster overview on startup: node grid cards, pod health gauges, cluster stats
  • Regex filter (/) against name, namespace, and all column values
  • Resource count badges in the sidebar
  • 2-second auto-refresh that preserves scroll position and selection

Inspect

  • Smart detail views with structured, per-resource-type rendering (replicas, conditions, ports, rules, volumes, etc.)
  • YAML view toggle with v
  • Related events shown at the bottom of every detail view (kubectl-describe style)
  • Related resources -- navigate to owner references, pods, services with r
  • Labels and annotations -- l/a to select, Space to expand long values, y to copy
  • Secret decoding -- Space to decode base64 values in-place

Act

Key Action Scope
e Edit in $EDITOR with diff preview before apply Any resource
C Create from YAML template in $EDITOR Any type
D Delete with confirmation Any resource
S Scale replicas Deployment, StatefulSet, ReplicaSet
R Rolling restart Deployment, StatefulSet, DaemonSet
d Diff two resources side-by-side Any two of same type
K Cordon/uncordon Node
T Drain (cordon + evict pods) Node
T Trigger Job from CronJob CronJob

Logs

  • All pods, all containers aggregated by default for any workload
  • Color-coded by pod -- each source pod gets a distinct prefix color
  • Strictly timestamp-ordered -- lines from different pods merge correctly
  • Auto-discovery of new pods -- rolling updates are captured without reopening the log view
  • Follow mode (f) for live streaming
  • Regex filter (/) with inline match highlighting
  • Pod/container selectors (p/c) to narrow the stream
  • Time range (t) -- e.g. 30m, 2h, 1d
  • Line selection with j/k, multi-select with Shift+j/Shift+k, copy with Y

Port Forwarding

  • Create (F) from Services, Deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets, ReplicaSets, Pods, Jobs, CronJobs
  • Survives pod restarts -- resolves the current pod per-connection via label selectors
  • Persistent -- saved to your active profile and restored on next launch
  • Manage -- dedicated sidebar view to pause (p), resume, cancel (d), edit local port (e)

Favorites and Profiles

  • Star (*) any resource from list or detail view
  • Favorites view in the sidebar -- fully functional (edit, logs, delete, etc.)
  • Profiles -- named groups of favorites and port forwards; Ctrl+s to save, P to switch
  • Missing indicators -- ⚠ for favorites from unreachable clusters

Command Palette

  • Ctrl+p to open
  • Type to fuzzy-search resources across all types in the cluster
  • Prefix with > to search available commands
  • Context-aware help with ? (press Tab to see all keybindings)

Exec (Experimental)

  • X to exec into a pod (requires qb -e flag)
  • Choose container, command, and terminal application in a dialog
  • Opens a new terminal window with kubectl exec -it
  • Supports Ghostty, iTerm2, Alacritty, kitty, WezTerm, Terminal.app, and others via $TERMINAL or $TERM_PROGRAM

Installation

From source

Requires Rust (edition 2021).

git clone https://github.com/cchexcode/qb.git
cd qb
cargo build --release -p qb
# Binary at target/release/qb

Usage

qb                    # default kubeconfig and context
qb -e                 # enable experimental features (exec)
qb version            # print version

At runtime, press c to switch cluster context, n to switch namespace, or O to open a different kubeconfig file.

Key Bindings

Global

Key Action
Ctrl+c Force quit
q Quit / go back
Esc Dismiss popup or selection
? Help (context-aware; Tab for all)
Ctrl+p Command palette
Ctrl+s Save profile
P Load/switch profile
p Pause/resume auto-refresh

Main View

Key Action
j/k Move down/up
Ctrl+d/Ctrl+u Page down/up
g/G Top/bottom
Enter Open detail / focus table
Tab Toggle sidebar/table focus
</> Resize sidebar
c Switch cluster
n Switch namespace
O Open kubeconfig
/ Filter by regex
x Clear filter
e Edit resource
l Logs
D Delete
R Restart
S Scale
F Port forward
C Create resource
d Mark/diff
y Copy name
* Toggle favorite
X Exec (experimental)

Detail View

Key Action
v Toggle Smart/YAML
w Toggle watch (auto-refresh)
l/a Select labels/annotations
Space Expand value / decode secret
y Copy value or YAML
r Related resources
e Edit
L Logs
D Delete

Log View

Key Action
f Toggle follow
/ Filter by regex
p/c Select pod/container
t Time range
w Toggle wrapping
Y Copy to clipboard
J/K Extend selection

Edit Diff View

Key Action
v Toggle inline/side-by-side
Enter Apply changes
e Re-edit
Esc Cancel

Port Forwards View

Key Action
p Pause/resume
d Cancel forward
e Edit local port

How It Works

qb uses the kube crate with rustls for direct communication with the Kubernetes API server. Authentication and cluster details come from your kubeconfig (~/.kube/config or $KUBECONFIG). There is no dependency on kubectl for any operation except exec (which spawns kubectl exec in a new terminal window).

The TUI is built on ratatui + crossterm. All API calls are deferred and executed between render frames so the UI never blocks. Log streaming and port forwarding run as background async tasks with channel-based updates polled each tick.

Custom Resource support works by discovering all CRDs at startup and using the kube dynamic API (DynamicObject + ApiResource) to list, inspect, edit, and delete CR instances without compile-time type information. CRD additionalPrinterColumns are used to render table columns.

Configuration (favorites, port forwards, profiles) is persisted to ~/.config/qb/config.yaml and auto-saved on changes.

License

MIT