Get Context In Kubernetes

In Kubernetes, a context is a combination of a cluster, a user and a namespace, which defines the operational environment for interacting with a Kubernetes cluster.

The short answer

In Kubernetes, to get concise information about all the existing contexts defined in the kubeconfig  file, such as their cluster name, user name and namespace, you can use the kubectl config  command with the get-contexts  subcommand as follows:

 $ kubectl config get-contexts

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Once executed, this command will produce an output similar to the following one, where the current context is identified by an asterisk ( * ):

 CURRENT   NAME                 CLUSTER          AUTHINFO         NAMESPACE
*         dev-context          dev-cluster      dev-user         development
         staging-context    staging-cluster    staging-user     staging
         prod-context         prod-cluster     prod-user        production

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Easily retrieve this command using Warp’s AI Command Suggestions

If you’re using Warp as your terminal, you can easily retrieve this command using the Warp AI Command Suggestions feature:

Entering list contexts in kubeconfig  in the AI Command Suggestions will prompt a kubectl  command that can then quickly be inserted into your shell by doing CMD+ENTER .

Getting information about the current context

To get information about the current context, you can use the current-context  subcommand as follows:

 $ kubectl config current-context

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Getting information about a specific context

To get information about a specific context, you can use the get-contexts  subcommand as follows:

 $ kubectl config get-contexts <context_name>

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Where:

• context_name  is the name of the context.

For example, the following command will display the information related to the context named staging-context :

 $ kubectl config get-contexts staging-context

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If you want to learn more about modifying existing contexts in Kubernetes, you can read our other article on how to set a context with kubectl.

Getting comprehensive context overview

To output a comprehensive overview of the kubeconfig  file settings, including information about clusters, users, API servers and more, you can use the view  subcommand as follows:

 $ kubectl config view

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Note that, by default, this command will output information in the YAML format.

To output it in the JSON format instead, you can use the -o  flag (short for --output ) as follows:

 $ kubectl config view -o json

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Viewing the details of the current context

To only output the detailed overview of the current context, you can use the --minify  flag as follows:

 $ kubectl config view --minify

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Viewing the details of a specific context

To only output the detailed overview of a specific context, you can combine the --minify  flag with the --context  flag as follows:

 $ kubectl config view --minify --context=<context_name>

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Retrieving context properties

To retrieve a particular property from a specific context, you can use the -o jsonpath  flag combined with a JSONPath expression as follows:

 $ kubectl config view --minify -o jsonpath='{..<property>}'

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Where:

• property  is the name of the property you want to retrieve (e.g., cluster , user , namespace , etc).

Retrieving the namespace of the current context

To retrieve the namespace of the current context, you can use the aforementioned command with the following JSONPath expression:

 $ kubectl config view --minify -o jsonpath='{..namespace}'

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Retrieving the namespaces of all contexts

To retrieve the namespaces of all the contexts defined in kubeconfig  file in the form of a list, you can use the aforementioned command with the following JSONPath expression:

 $ kubectl config view --minify -o jsonpath='{.contexts[*].context.namespace}'

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Alternatively, to also retrieve the name of the context each namespace is associated to, you can use the following for  loop instead:

 $ for context in $(kubectl config get-contexts -o name); do
namespace=$(kubectl config view -o jsonpath="{.contexts[?(@.name == \"${context}\")].context.namespace}")
echo "Context: $context, Namespace: ${namespace:-default}"
done

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Where:

• The for  loop iterates over the list of context names returned by the kubectl config get-contexts -o name  command.
• Retrieves the namespace related to that context using the kubectl config view -o jsonpath="{.contexts[?(@.name == \"${context}\")].context.namespace}"  command.
• Outputs the context name and namespace using the echo  command.

Getting information about the resources of a specific context

To get information on a resource type related to a specific context, you can use the kubectl get  command with the --context  flag as follows:

 $ kubectl get <resource_type> --context <context_name>

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Where:

• resource_type  is the name of the resource type (e.g., pods , nodes , services , etc).
• context_name  is the name of the context.

For example, the following command will output information about the Services related to the context named staging-context :

 $ kubectl get services --context staging-context

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