agent safety

Agent safety answer

kubernetes-cli provides kubectl, which controls Kubernetes clusters and workloads.

Credential access

Reads kubeconfig, exec credentials, cluster tokens, and namespace context.

Remote mutation

Can create, patch, delete, scale, and exec into cluster workloads.

Publish/artifact risk

Can apply manifests that deploy or expose application artifacts.

Recommended control

Gate kubectl apply, delete, patch, exec, port-forward, and context changes.

Agent-use guidance

Allow get/describe with safe contexts; require approval for cluster writes and secret reads.

install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install kubernetes-cli

provider-native install command

overview

Package summary

Kubernetes command-line interface

Project links

Commands and aliases

kubectl

history

Project history and usage

kubectl is the Kubernetes command-line client and the binary packaged by Homebrew as kubernetes-cli. It is the standard local interface for sending requests to the Kubernetes control plane, reading and writing objects, inspecting resources, and driving day-to-day cluster operations.

Project history

Kubernetes began as an open source Google project in 2014 and reached version 1.0 on July 21, 2015, alongside Google's announcement that the project would be donated to the newly formed Cloud Native Computing Foundation. kubectl evolved with the project as the human-facing client for the Kubernetes API.

Adoption history

As Kubernetes became the common substrate for cloud-native infrastructure, kubectl became one of the most widely installed operations binaries in developer and platform-engineering toolchains. Its packaging across Homebrew, Linux distributions, Chocolatey, Scoop, winget, Nix, MacPorts, and other systems reflects that it is both a developer tool and an infrastructure administration tool.

How it is used

kubectl reads kubeconfig data to select a cluster, user, namespace, and context, then communicates with the API server. Kubernetes documentation says kubectl looks for config in $HOME/.kube/config by default, while KUBECONFIG and --kubeconfig allow explicit or merged configuration files.

Why package nerds care

The kubernetes-cli package is significant because it decouples the local client from a full Kubernetes installation. Package managers let users pin or upgrade the client, match cluster version-skew policy, and keep scripts using a predictable kubectl binary without installing control-plane components.

Timeline

2014: Kubernetes was released as an open source project.
2015-07-21: Kubernetes 1.0 was released and the project was donated to the CNCF.
2023-08-15: Kubernetes documented pkgs.k8s.io as community-owned package repositories for Kubernetes packages.
2025-04-23: Kubernetes v1.33 was released.
2025-08-27: Kubernetes v1.34 was released.

Related projects

kubectl is related to the Kubernetes API server, kubeconfig, client-go, kubeadm, kustomize, Helm, kubectl plugins, and the broader SIG CLI tooling ecosystem.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: orange

cluster orchestration infrastructure.

Risk classifier

orange risk · high confidence · infrastructure

Why

cluster orchestration infrastructure

Signals

override:kubernetes-cli

Install behavior

No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.

Recommended review

Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.

local files

Configuration and credential file locations

These source-backed paths show where this package keeps local settings or durable credentials. Automic Vault can use them as review targets for secret scanning, migration, and command approval.

Configuration files

Config paths the tool may read or write during local use.

Unix: ~/.kube/config

Credential files

Credential-bearing paths to review before unattended agent runs.

Unix: ~/.kube/config

executables

Installed executables

Command	Kind	Exposure	Note
`kubectl`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-08-03

manager version1.36.3

manager updated2026-07-23

local dataunknown

upstreamnot available

latest detectednot detected

okNo freshness warnings were generated.

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:kubernetes-cli
Version	1.36.3
Package manager	Homebrew
Homepage	https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/
Repository	https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes
Last updated	2026-07-23T03:43:20Z
Pulse	updated
Bottle	not recorded
Service	none declared

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

source trail

Generated from repository data

This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.

Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub.

combined/kubernetes-cli.yml

Used sources

Geiger risk classifier
Nucleus package database
curated agent safety answer
curated configuration and credential file locations
curated package history
pkgdb category and tag curation

Install kubernetes-cli with Homebrew