Kunobi

Native desktop tool for Kubernetes and GitOps. Built on Tauri, not Electron.

What it does

Kunobi is a desktop app for managing Kubernetes clusters. It reads your kubeconfig, connects to your clusters, and gives you a GUI for the stuff you'd normally do with kubectl or k9s.

Multi-cluster management with keyboard shortcuts. A resource browser with virtual scrolling for large clusters. Split-pane terminals with auto-reconnect. A YAML editor with K8s-aware validation. Flux CD flow graph visualization. Built-in KIND cluster creation for testing locally without touching your real infrastructure.

The whole thing runs natively on your OS. No bundled Chromium, no Electron, no Node.js runtime. Install size is around 30MB, idles at ~100MB of RAM.

Screenshots

Install

Download

Download from kunobi.ninja/download. Available for macOS, Linux, and Windows.

Two channels are available across all package managers:

Channel	Description	Who should use it
stable	Production releases	Most users
unstable	Pre-releases (RC, beta, alpha)	Testers and early adopters

Stable and unstable install the same Kunobi binary; only one channel can be installed at a time. Switching channels means uninstalling and reinstalling. The mechanism for selecting a channel differs per package manager — see each section below.

Homebrew (macOS)

brew tap kunobi-ninja/kunobi  # If not already added

# Stable
brew install --cask kunobi

# Unstable (pre-releases)
brew install --cask kunobi-unstable

brew will refuse to install one cask while the other is present. To switch channels:

brew uninstall --cask kunobi && brew install --cask kunobi-unstable

The casks are maintained at kunobi-ninja/homebrew-kunobi.

Chocolatey (Windows)

# Stable
choco install kunobi

# Unstable (pre-releases)
choco install kunobi --pre

Stable and unstable share a single Chocolatey package; the --pre flag opts into pre-release versions. Use choco upgrade kunobi --pre to keep an unstable install up to date.

The package is maintained at kunobi-ninja/chocolatey-kunobi.

Winget (Windows)

# Stable
winget install kunobi-ninja.kunobi

# Unstable (pre-releases)
winget install kunobi-ninja.kunobi.Unstable

The packages are maintained at microsoft/winget-pkgs. Manifest PRs are submitted automatically from the kunobi-ninja/winget-pkgs fork.

APT (Linux)

Kunobi publishes .deb packages to a self-hosted APT repository with one signed suite per channel. The channel is selected by which suite your /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kunobi.list subscribes to — there's no separate package name. Stable releases are also promoted into the unstable suite, so unstable subscribers receive stable updates too.

Setup

# Import the GPG signing key
curl -fsSL https://r2.kunobi.ninja/apt/gpg.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/kunobi.gpg

# Add the repository (choose one)

# Stable channel (recommended)
echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/kunobi.gpg] https://r2.kunobi.ninja/apt stable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kunobi.list

# OR Unstable channel (pre-releases)
echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/kunobi.gpg] https://r2.kunobi.ninja/apt unstable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kunobi.list

Install and update

sudo apt update
sudo apt install kunobi

Future updates are delivered through the standard apt upgrade flow.

Aqua (macOS and Linux)

aqua can install Kunobi (macOS arm64, Linux x64) from the aqua-registry:

aqua init                       # if not already initialized
aqua g -i kunobi-ninja/kunobi
aqua i

mise can also install and manage Kunobi versions (macOS arm64, Linux x64) through aqua-registry:

mise use aqua:kunobi-ninja/kunobi

Kunobi is registered in the aqua registry (aqua:kunobi-ninja/kunobi), so it can be used directly by mise.

Community

• Discussions for questions, ideas, and feedback
• Issues for bug reports
• Twitter / X
• Reddit

License

Source-available. See LICENSE for details.