CLI Shortcuts

To interact with the K2s cluster, the following shortcuts can be used:

Shortcut	Command	Description
`c`	`crictl`	Client for CRI
`d`	`docker`	A self-sufficient runtime for containers
`k`	`kubectl`	kubectl controls the Kubernetes cluster manager
`ka`	`kubectl apply`	Apply something to cluster
`kaf`	`kubectl apply -f`	Apply specified YAML manifest
`kcp`	`kubectl delete pod --field-selector=status.phase==Succeeded,Evicted -A`	Cleanup of all succeeded Pods
`kd`	`kubectl describe`	Describe Kubernetes resource
`kdp`	`kubectl describe pod`	Describe Pod
`kdpn`	`kubectl describe pod -n`	Describe all Pods inside the specified namespace
`kg`	`kubectl get`	Get Kubernetes resource
`kgn`	`kubectl get nodes -o wide`	Get all cluster nodes
`kgp`	`kubectl get pods -o wide -A`	Get all Pods of all namespaces
`kl`	`kubectl logs`	Show logs of Kubernetes resource
`krp`	`kubectl delete pod`	Remove specified Pod
`ks`	`k2s status -o wide`	Inspect K2s system health

Krew support

K2s bundles Krew, the official kubectl plugin manager, together with kubectl on both the Windows host and the Linux control-plane node. Krew is part of the offline package, so no additional download is required — after installing K2s you can immediately run:

Windows hostLinux control-plane

PowerShell

kubectl krew version

Bash Session

kubectl krew version

Note

Installing plugins (for example kubectl krew install ctx) fetches the plugin index and packages from the internet and is therefore an online, user-initiated action. It is never performed during K2s installation, preserving K2s's offline guarantees. K2s bundles Krew itself, but never bundles or installs plugins.

Initializing the plugin index

K2s provides the Krew binary; the plugin index and the plugin lifecycle stay user-managed. Before plugins can be searched or installed, initialize the index once per user:

Bash Session

kubectl krew update

This command clones Krew's plugin index and therefore requires Git and network access. K2s does not bundle Git on either platform — install it yourself if it is missing:

Platform	Install Git via
Windows host	Git for Windows
Linux control-plane	`sudo apt-get install git`

Until the index is initialized, kubectl krew list and kubectl krew search report krew local plugin index is not initialized, while kubectl krew version already works. This is expected Krew behaviour and does not affect the K2s installation itself, which remains fully offline-capable. The same model applies to Helm, where K2s ships the binary and you add chart repositories yourself.

Plugin directories and PATH

Krew installs plugins into a per-user directory, which K2s adds to PATH for the user that installed K2s so that installed plugins are discoverable right away:

Platform	Plugin directory	How `PATH` is configured
Windows	`%USERPROFILE%\.krew\bin`	User-scope `PATH` of the installing user
Linux control-plane	`$HOME/.krew/bin`	`~/.profile` of the node user

Any additional user follows Krew's standard one-time PATH setup to expose their own plugins.

Plugins are user-owned state: K2s never backs up, migrates, upgrades or deletes ~/.krew (%USERPROFILE%\.krew on Windows). Plugins therefore survive a K2s upgrade and are not removed by k2s uninstall. Use kubectl krew upgrade to update plugins yourself.