Kubebar is a native macOS menu bar for Kubernetes health.
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Kubebar gives Kubernetes operators a lightweight, watchlist-first status instrument that shows whether critical workloads are healthy, need attention, or have gone stale before opening deeper troubleshooting tools.
- Watchlist-First Monitoring: Don't get overwhelmed. Monitor only the namespaces and workloads that matter to you.
- One-Click
k9sHandoff: Jump directly from a menu bar warning into deep troubleshooting ink9swith⌘K. - Context-Aware: The menu bar automatically follows your active
kubectlcontext, switching watches as you work. - Glanceable Health Summaries: See Pod readiness, Node availability, and recent Warning events without leaving your current app.
- Native & Lightweight: Built with SwiftUI for macOS, ensuring minimal CPU/Memory footprint.
Kubebar is not a replacement for k9s or kubectl. It is the small, persistent dashboard you look at before you dive into deeper troubleshooting tools. It focuses on:
- Visibility: Always-on health status in your menu bar.
- Speed: Instant access to workload reasons and warning events.
- Trust: Clear indicators for stale data and connectivity issues.
Think of Kubebar as a tiny companion for k9s, not a competitor. Kubebar answers the ambient question — "is anything on fire?" — from the macOS menu bar, then hands you off to k9s with ⌘K when you need the full terminal UI for deep debugging.
- Local-only: Kubebar runs on your Mac and keeps cluster status local to the app.
- Uses your existing
kubectl: Cluster access goes through the Kubernetes CLI already configured on your machine. - No credential storage: Kubebar stores selected context, watchlist, and refresh cadence only; it does not store Kubernetes tokens, certificates, or passwords.
- No telemetry: Kubebar does not send usage data or cluster information to external servers.
Kubebar relies on the official Kubernetes CLI to interact with your clusters.
- kubectl: Must be installed and available in your
PATH.brew install kubernetes-cli
- Kubeconfig: You must have a valid
~/.kube/configwith the contexts you wish to monitor.
Download Kubebar.zip from the latest GitHub Release, extract it, and move Kubebar.app to your /Applications folder.
If you need the pinned v0.2.0 build, download Kubebar.zip from the v0.2.0 release.
git clone https://github.com/nexttylabs/kubebar.git
cd kubebar
xcodegen generate
open Kubebar.xcodeproj
# Or use the local install script
./scripts/install-local.sh- Open Kubebar.
- Follow the Setup flow to select your Kubernetes context.
- Pick the namespaces and workloads you want to add to your Watchlist.
- Set your preferred Refresh Cadence.
Q: Why does macOS say the app is "unverified" or "damaged"? A: Currently, Kubebar is distributed with an Ad-hoc signature because it is an open-source project without a paid Apple Developer account. To run the app:
- Right-click
Kubebar.appin Finder and select Open. - Click Open again in the security dialog.
- If it still won't open, run:
xattr -cr /Applications/Kubebar.appin your terminal.
Q: Does Kubebar store my Kubernetes credentials?
A: No. Kubebar uses your existing kubectl configuration. It never asks for, stores, or transmits your tokens or certificates. See docs/PERMISSIONS.md for details.
- Permissions & Privacy — How we use
kubectland handle your data. - Release Process — How the app is built and signed.
- Architecture — High-level system overview.
- Product Roadmap — What’s coming next.
To run quality checks locally:
./scripts/swift-quality-gate.sh localKubebar uses XcodeGen to manage the project file. If you add files or change targets, run:
xcodegen generateMIT • Nextty Labs