Best CLIs for Containers and Kubernetes
These CLIs cover container builds, registries, deployments, cluster inspection, logs, rollouts, and Kubernetes operations. They are especially useful when an agent needs a direct action layer for infra and deployment work.
dive
Inspect Docker and OCI image layers, file changes, and wasted space to debug and optimize container images.
etcdctl
CLI for reading and writing etcd keys, checking cluster health, and managing members, auth, leases, and snapshots.
minikube
Local Kubernetes cluster CLI for starting clusters, enabling addons, exposing services, and testing Kubernetes workflows on a developer machine.
Podman
Container engine CLI for running, building, inspecting, and publishing OCI containers, images, pods, and volumes.
Helm
Kubernetes CLI for packaging charts, rendering manifests, and installing, upgrading, or rolling back releases.
Argo CD CLI
GitOps CLI for inspecting, diffing, syncing, and managing Argo CD applications, projects, clusters, and repos.
kubectx
Kubernetes context-switching CLI for listing, selecting, renaming, deleting, and changing the active `kubectl` context.
kops
Kubernetes cluster lifecycle CLI for provisioning, upgrading, and operating self-managed clusters and instance groups across several clouds.
Skaffold
Kubernetes workflow CLI for continuous dev loops, image builds, manifest rendering, deploys, and verification.
kind
Official CLI for creating local Kubernetes clusters, loading images, and exporting kubeconfig or logs for dev and CI.
Kustomize
Kubernetes manifest customization CLI for building overlays, applying patches, and rendering YAML without templates.
skopeo
Daemonless container image CLI for inspecting, copying, signing, deleting, and syncing images across registries and OCI layouts.
Velero
Kubernetes backup and disaster recovery CLI for creating, restoring, and managing cluster and volume backups.
Buildah
Daemonless CLI for building, inspecting, and publishing OCI container images from Containerfiles or working containers.
Flux CLI
GitOps CLI for bootstrapping Flux on Kubernetes, managing Flux resources, and inspecting reconciliation state.
k3d
CLI for creating and managing local k3s Kubernetes clusters in Docker, including kubeconfig, image import, and registry workflows.
eksctl
Official Amazon EKS CLI for creating clusters, managing nodegroups and addons, and updating access or networking settings on AWS.
stern
Kubernetes log tailing CLI for streaming and filtering logs across multiple pods and containers.
crane
Container registry CLI for inspecting image metadata, copying images, and modifying remote OCI image references.
kubectl
Kubernetes CLI for inspecting resources, applying manifests, managing kubeconfig, and operating workloads.
crictl
Node-level CLI for inspecting and manipulating CRI containers, images, pod sandboxes, and runtime state on Kubernetes nodes.