KExplorer

A real-time, highly-opinionated, web-based Kubernetes dashboard for managing deployments, pods, and cluster resources. Built for K3s and any standard Kubernetes cluster based on my personal workflow and preferences.

Features

• Pin deployments — click any deployment in the sidebar to pin it to the main workspace for focused monitoring
• Real-time deployment monitoring — watch pod statuses, replica counts, and conditions update live via WebSocket events
• Pod lifecycle badges — visual indicators for Terminating, Pending, ContainerCreating, CrashLoopBackOff, ImagePullBackOff, OOMKilled, Running, Completed, and Failed
• Deployment conditions — surface ReplicaFailure, Progressing, and availability status inline on each card
• Live event stream — WebSocket-powered Kubernetes event feed in the sidebar with connection status and auto-refresh
• Pod log streaming — open real-time container logs in a dock panel without leaving the page
• Pod restart — one-click pod deletion (Kubernetes recreates via ReplicaSet)
• Scale replicas — up/down controls directly on each deployment card
• Ingress viewer — expand the Ingresses section on any pinned card to see host rules and service paths
• ConfigMap & Secret editor — inline YAML editor with syntax highlighting for quick edits
• Deployment YAML viewer — inspect full deployment manifests
• Dark / light mode — fully themed UI
• Namespace filter — switch context across cluster namespaces
• Group filters — custom deployment groupings for focused views

Architecture

Layer	Tech
Frontend	React + TypeScript + Tailwind CSS + Vite
Backend	FastAPI (Python)
Kubernetes client	Official Python client with watch API
Real-time	WebSockets (events + log streaming)
Metrics	metrics.k8s.io API (when metrics-server is available)

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+
• Node.js 18+
• A Kubernetes cluster with kubectl configured (K3s, minikube, EKS, GKE, etc.)
• (Optional) metrics-server for pod CPU/memory metrics

Quick Start

1. Clone and enter the project

git clone https://github.com/aymenkrifa/KExplorer.git
cd KExplorer

2. Backend

cd backend
uv sync
uv run uvicorn main:app --host 0.0.0.0 --port 3001

The backend starts on http://localhost:3001.

3. Frontend

cd ../frontend
npm install
npm run dev

The frontend starts on http://localhost:5173 and proxies API/WebSocket calls to the backend.

Security & scope

KExplorer is designed for local, single-user development against a cluster you already have admin access to. It is intentionally not hardened:

• No authentication. Anyone who can reach the backend can drive your cluster.
• CORS is wide open (allow_origins=["*"]).
• Secrets are decoded server-side and returned as plaintext to the browser.
• The backend uses your local kubeconfig — whatever context is active when the server starts is the cluster it operates on. Switching contexts requires a restart.

Do not expose the backend on a network you don't fully control. Run it on localhost only.

Environment Variables

Variable	Default	Description
KUBECONFIG	~/.kube/config	Path to your kubeconfig file

API Endpoints

REST

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/api/contexts	List kubeconfig contexts
GET	/api/namespaces	List namespaces
GET	/api/deployments	List deployments (optionally filtered by names)
GET	/api/deployments/{name}	Single deployment details
GET	/api/deployments/{name}/pods	Pods for a deployment
GET	/api/deployments/{name}/yaml	Deployment manifest as YAML
POST	/api/deployments/{name}/restart	Rolling restart (patch annotation)
POST	/api/deployments/{name}/scale	Scale replicas
GET	/api/namespaces/{ns}/pods/{name}/metrics	Pod CPU/memory (requires metrics-server)
DELETE	/api/pods/{namespace}/{name}	Delete a pod
GET/PUT	/api/configmaps	List / update ConfigMaps
GET/PUT	/api/secrets	List / update Secrets

WebSockets

Path	Description
/ws/logs?namespace=...&pod=...&container=...	Real-time pod log stream
/ws/events	Real-time Kubernetes event stream (all namespaces)

License

MIT — see LICENSE.