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Connect Your Kubernetes Cluster to Autokitteh

This guide helps you expose your Kubernetes API securely and create a non-expiring kubeconfig file in JSON format for use with Autokitteh.

This guide is intended for Autokitteh self-hosted/local version only.

Prerequisites​

  • A running Kubernetes cluster (e.g. Minikube)
  • kubectl installed and configured

Step-by-Step Instructions​

Step 1: Create a Kubernetes Service Account​

kubectl create serviceaccount autokitteh

Step 2: Grant Permissions (Cluster-Wide)​

kubectl create clusterrolebinding autokitteh-access-binding \
  --clusterrole=cluster-admin \
  --serviceaccount=default:autokitteh

Note: You can replace cluster-admin with a custom role for limited access.

Step 3: Create a Non-Expiring Token​

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: autokitteh-token
  annotations:
    kubernetes.io/service-account.name: "autokitteh"
type: kubernetes.io/service-account-token
EOF

Then wait a few seconds and extract the token:

kubectl get secret autokitteh-token -o jsonpath="{.data.token}" | base64 --decode

Copy and save the token for use in the config file.

Step 4: Get Your Kubernetes API Server Address​

First, get your local API server URL (including the port):

kubectl config view --minify -o jsonpath="{.clusters[0].cluster.server}"

Copy the what shown in the terminal, such as:

https://127.0.0.1:64742

Step 5: Create the kubeconfig as JSON​

Create a file called k8s-api-config.json and paste the following, replacing the placeholders:

{
  "apiVersion": "v1",
  "kind": "Config",
  "current-context": "autokitteh-context",
  "clusters": [
    {
      "name": "autokitteh-cluster",
      "cluster": {
        "server": "https://REPLACE_WITH_URL",
        "insecure-skip-tls-verify": true
      }
    }
  ],
  "users": [
    {
      "name": "autokitteh-user",
      "user": {
        "token": "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  ],
  "contexts": [
    {
      "name": "autokitteh-context",
      "context": {
        "cluster": "autokitteh-cluster",
        "user": "autokitteh-user",
        "namespace": "default"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Make sure to:

  • Replace https://REPLACE_WITH_URL with your actual URL from the previous step
  • Replace REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_TOKEN with the actual token from Step 3

Step 6: Create the Autokitteh connection​

  • Create a Kubernetes connection in the Autokitteh UI (web platform)
  • Copy the full contents of k8s-api-config.json and paste it in the config_file field
  • Paste it into the connection variable field labeled K8s Config File

More Info​

For web platform use (not local), you can follow this CNCF guide to expose your Kubernetes API, but this is not safe for production: https://www.cncf.io/blog/2025/03/12/expose-the-kubernetes-api-and-access-it-anywhere/