๐ญ K8s Lens MCP
A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for intelligent, natural-language-powered Kubernetes operations.
Stop memorizing kubectl flags. Ask your cluster questions in plain English.
โจ What It Does
K8s Lens MCP exposes deep analytical tools to any MCP-compatible AI assistant (Claude, Cursor, Copilot, etc.):
| Capability | Example Prompt |
|---|---|
| Smart Resource Queries | "Show me all pods with status CrashLoopBackOff in namespace staging" |
| Pod Root-Cause Analysis | "Why is this pod failing?" โ correlates events, logs, resource limits, and node conditions |
| Cross-Environment Diff | "Diff the nginx deployment between staging and prod" |
| Manifest Generation | "Create a basic nginx deployment with 2 replicas and a LoadBalancer service" |
Unlike thin kubectl wrappers, K8s Lens MCP analyzes and correlates data so the AI can give you real answers, not just raw command output.
๐ Quick Start
1. Install
pip install k8s-lens-mcp
Or with Poetry:
poetry add k8s-lens-mcp
2. Configure Your AI Client
Claude Desktop
Add to ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json (macOS) or %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json (Windows):
{
"mcpServers": {
"k8s-lens": {
"command": "k8s-lens-mcp",
"args": []
}
}
}
Cursor
Add to Cursor Settings โ MCP:
{
"mcpServers": {
"k8s-lens": {
"command": "k8s-lens-mcp",
"args": []
}
}
}
3. Start Talking to Your Cluster
Open Claude or Cursor and ask:
"Show me all failing pods in the default namespace and tell me why they're failing."
๐ก๏ธ Safety First
- Read-only by default โ the server starts in
--read-onlymode. No accidental deletions. - RBAC-respecting โ we use your kubeconfig / ServiceAccount. We don't bypass Kubernetes permissions.
- Secret masking โ Kubernetes Secret data is never returned in tool output.
To enable read-write mode (future feature):
k8s-lens-mcp --read-only=false
๐๏ธ Development
Prerequisites
- Python 3.11+
- Poetry
- A Kubernetes cluster (e.g. kind, minikube, or a remote cluster)
Setup
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/k8s-lens-mcp.git
cd k8s-lens-mcp
poetry install
Run Locally
poetry run k8s-lens-mcp
Test with MCP Inspector
npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector poetry run k8s-lens-mcp
Run Tests
poetry run pytest
Lint & Format
poetry run ruff check .
poetry run ruff format .
๐ Roadmap
- Core MCP server scaffold
-
get_resourcesโ filtered resource queries -
analyze_podโ multi-signal root cause analysis -
compare_deploymentsโ cross-environment diffing -
generate_manifestโ best-practice manifest generation - Cost / resource optimization advisor
- Multi-cluster context aggregation
- Helm release values diffing
- In-cluster deployment (Helm chart)
-
kubectlplugin wrapper (kubectl lens "...")
๐ค Contributing
We welcome contributions! See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.
Please read our Code of Conduct.