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eksctl

Official · Amazon EKS
5.2k

Official Amazon EKS CLI for creating clusters, managing nodegroups and addons, and updating access or networking settings on AWS.

$ARCH=$(uname -m); [ "$ARCH" = "x86_64" ] && ARCH=amd64; [ "$ARCH" = "aarch64" ] && ARCH=arm64; [ "$ARCH" = "arm64" ] && ARCH=arm64; PLATFORM=$(uname -s)_$ARCH && curl -sLO "https://github.com/eksctl-io/eksctl/releases/latest/download/eksctl_${PLATFORM}.tar.gz" && tar -xzf "eksctl_${PLATFORM}.tar.gz" -C /tmp && sudo install -m 0755 /tmp/eksctl /usr/local/bin
Language
Go
Stars
5,183
Category
Containers & K8s
Agent
Ready
Agent Compatibility
JSON Output
Agent Skill
MCP Support
AI Analysis

eksctl is the official CLI for provisioning and operating Amazon EKS clusters, nodegroups, and cluster-adjacent features from the shell. It wraps EKS, CloudFormation, IAM, and related AWS APIs behind a config-file-friendly command surface.

What It Enables
  • Create, upgrade, and delete EKS clusters, managed or self-managed nodegroups, and kubeconfig state from flags or ClusterConfig files.
  • Manage EKS add-ons, access entries, IAM service accounts or OIDC wiring, and newer features like Auto Mode without stitching raw AWS API calls together.
  • Inspect clusters, add-ons, and CloudFormation stacks to verify state before or after changes.
Agent Fit
  • Config-file support, explicit flags, and plan mode plus --approve fit inspect-change-verify loops for EKS infrastructure work.
  • Structured output is real but partial: get, info, version, and some utils commands emit JSON or YAML, while many create or update flows still stream human-oriented progress logs.
  • Can also connect to MCP-based setups through the hidden eksctl mcp stdio server when that integration model is needed.
Caveats
  • You need AWS credentials and broad EKS, EC2, CloudFormation, IAM, and related permissions before most commands will work.
  • Mutating commands can be long-running and sometimes rely on follow-up tools like kubectl or manual CloudFormation cleanup when AWS-side resources block deletion.