kx is a kubectl wrapper that adds index-based resource selection. Run kx get <resource> once, then reference any result by number instead of typing full resource names.

Install

pip install kx-cli

Usage

List resources

kx get <resource> [--match|-m <substring>] [kubectl flags...]

Fetches resources and assigns index numbers. Any extra flags (e.g. -n <namespace>, -A) are passed through to kubectl. Use --match/-m to filter results by name (substring, case-insensitive).

$ kx get pods
X  NAME                          READY  STATUS   RESTARTS  AGE
1  api-7d9f4b8c6-xkp2q           1/1    Running  0         2d
2  worker-6c8b5f7d9-mnt4r        1/1    Running  3         5h
3  postgres-0                    1/1    Running  0         12d

All subsequent commands reference resources by their X index from the last kx get.

Commands

Command	Description
kx get <resource> [--match|-m <str>] [kubectl flags...]	List resources with index numbers; optionally filter by name substring
kx describe <index> [kubectl flags...]	Show kubectl describe output for an indexed resource
kx events <index>	Show Kubernetes events for the resource
kx labels <index>	Show labels for an indexed resource
kx logs <index> [kubectl flags...]	Stream logs; aggregates across pods for Deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets, and Services
kx yaml <index>	Print the raw YAML manifest
kx exec <index> [cmd] [kubectl flags...]	Open an interactive shell in a pod (bash → sh fallback); pass a custom command with cmd
kx edit <index> [kubectl flags...]	Open the resource in your editor via kubectl edit
kx delete <index> [-y]	Delete the resource (prompts for confirmation; -y skips it)
kx tree <index> [--index|-i]	Show the ownership graph for a resource; --index assigns indexes to tree nodes
kx port-forward <index> <port> [kubectl flags...]	Forward a local port to a resource (supports Pod, Deployment, ReplicaSet, StatefulSet, DaemonSet, Service)
kx state	Show the current state (namespace and indexed resources from the last kx get)

Example workflow

# list deployments, pick index 2
kx get deployments
kx describe 2

# check events on that deployment
kx events 2

# drill into a pod
kx get pods
kx logs 1
kx exec 1            # opens bash/sh
kx exec 1 -- env     # run a specific command

# forward local port 8080 to port 80 on a service
kx get services
kx port-forward 2 8080:80

# clean up
kx delete 3

State

kx saves the last get result to ~/.kx_state.json. Index-based commands read from this file, so switching namespaces or resource types requires a new kx get.

Development

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Run the CLI directly:

python -m kx.main --help