# Klustr > Klustr is a free, open-source Kubernetes desktop client for macOS, Linux and Windows. Built in Go, it reads your kubeconfig and drives the API directly: live resources, RBAC review, Helm, Argo CD, Flux, Gateway API and cert-manager, with nothing installed in the cluster. Klustr is a desktop application, not a service and not an in-cluster component. It reads the user's kubeconfig and drives the standard Kubernetes API directly, the way kubectl does, so there is no agent, operator, CRD or sign-in. The backend is Go with client-go; the window is Wails with a React frontend. The latest release is v0.88.1, published 14 October 2026. What it does: - Pure client: nothing installed in the cluster, drives the Kubernetes API from your kubeconfig - Live resource lists through client-go informers, never polled - Multi-context aggregated mode with named context groups and color tags - Every built-in resource kind including the full RBAC set - Access Review: subject to effective-permission matrix with the binding and role chain - Custom Resource Definitions auto-discovered and grouped by API group - Helm v3 install, upgrade, rollback and uninstall with a dry-run diff first - Argo CD sync, refresh, rollback and delete through the Kubernetes API - Flux CD reconcile, suspend and resume for Kustomizations, HelmReleases and sources - Tekton PipelineRuns with their task table, step logs, cancel and rerun - Gateway API typed views with listener tables, rule matrices and RouteParentStatus - cert-manager certificates with the full issuance chain and one-click renew - Kyverno policies, exceptions and policy reports, with the violations of each policy - Istio, Karpenter, Cilium and KEDA views that appear when their CRDs are present - Multi-pod log streaming with per-pod colors, follow, regex and save - In-app exec, ephemeral debug containers and a root node shell - Cordon, uncordon and PDB-aware drain with live progress - YAML editing with a server-side dry-run diff before apply - Scale, rolling restart, pause and resume, in-place pod resize - Rollout history with revision diff and one-click rollback - Port-forwarding with suggested ports and a header indicator - Built-in terminal drawer bound to the active context - Per-context read-only mode - Thirteen themes and a command palette Every link below is the markdown version of a page on klustr.dev. Each of those pages serves it at its own URL plus `index.md` (https://klustr.dev/docs/helm/ is https://klustr.dev/docs/helm/index.md) and points to it with ``; links inside the documents go to the HTML pages. The install steps, every guide, the FAQ and the comparisons are also in one file at https://klustr.dev/llms-full.txt. ## Pages - [Install](https://klustr.dev/install/index.md): Homebrew, the AUR package, the .deb, the tarballs, the Windows zip and building from source; updating, verifying a download and the requirements. - [FAQ](https://klustr.dev/faq/index.md): What Klustr installs, which platforms it runs on, how it authenticates, telemetry and what it costs. - [Documentation index](https://klustr.dev/docs/index.md): All task-focused guides, grouped. ## Docs: getting around - [Getting started](https://klustr.dev/docs/getting-started/index.md): Connect to a context, choose namespaces and browse production safely in read-only mode. - [Multi-context & aggregated mode](https://klustr.dev/docs/multi-context/index.md): View two or more clusters as one, save named groups and tag contexts with a color stripe. ## Docs: connecting - [Credential helpers (aws-vault & friends)](https://klustr.dev/docs/credential-helpers/index.md): Make aws-vault and other exec plugins work when Klustr is launched from the Dock or Finder. ## Docs: working with resources - [Cluster & workloads overviews](https://klustr.dev/docs/overview/index.md): Capacity donuts, workload health bars and the recent-events feed. - [Workloads & debugging](https://klustr.dev/docs/workloads-and-debugging/index.md): Logs, exec, debug containers, port-forward, node shell, drain, events and pod diagnosis. - [Terminal](https://klustr.dev/docs/terminal/index.md): The built-in shell drawer, copy and paste rules, and launching an external terminal. - [Helm](https://klustr.dev/docs/helm/index.md): Browse releases and run install, upgrade, rollback and uninstall with a dry-run first. - [GitOps: Argo CD & Flux](https://klustr.dev/docs/gitops/index.md): Argo CD and Flux: sync, refresh, reconcile and suspend through the Kubernetes API. - [Tekton Pipelines](https://klustr.dev/docs/tekton/index.md): PipelineRuns with their task table, TaskRun step logs, and cancel and rerun without tkn. - [Gateway API](https://klustr.dev/docs/gateway-api/index.md): Gateways, routes, ListenerSets and how to read route status when something is rejected. - [Kyverno & policy reports](https://klustr.dev/docs/kyverno/index.md): Kyverno policies and exceptions, policy reports, and which resources each policy flags. - [Cilium](https://klustr.dev/docs/cilium/index.md): Cilium network policies, endpoints, nodes, IP pools and BGP configuration as Cilium reports them. - [Platform integrations: cert-manager, Istio, Karpenter & KEDA](https://klustr.dev/docs/integrations/index.md): cert-manager, Istio, Karpenter and KEDA views that appear when their CRDs are present. - [Custom Resources (CRDs)](https://klustr.dev/docs/custom-resources/index.md): How CRDs are auto-discovered, the generic browser and the promoted typed integrations. ## Comparisons - [All comparisons](https://klustr.dev/compare/index.md): Klustr next to Lens, k9s and Headlamp, row by row, reviewed 2026-10-16. - [Klustr vs Lens](https://klustr.dev/compare/lens/index.md): The best-known Kubernetes IDE. Electron, cross-platform, with an extension marketplace, team features and paid plans. Activation needs a Lens ID. - [Klustr vs k9s](https://klustr.dev/compare/k9s/index.md): Keyboard-driven terminal UI in Go. One context at a time, fast to navigate, extensible through plugins and hotkeys. Apache-2.0. - [Klustr vs Headlamp](https://klustr.dev/compare/headlamp/index.md): Kubernetes SIG UI project with a plugin system. Runs as an Electron desktop app or is deployed into the cluster as a web UI. Apache-2.0. ## Optional - [Changelog](https://klustr.dev/changelog/index.md): Release notes for the 20 most recent releases, newest first. - [Full text](https://klustr.dev/llms-full.txt): The install steps, every guide, the FAQ and the comparisons in one file. - [Source repository](https://github.com/SametKUM/klustr): Go backend, React frontend, Apache-2.0 licensed. - [Site repository](https://github.com/SametKUM/klustr.dev): The site's source, with the guides as markdown under docs/guide (CC-BY-4.0).