Your kubeconfig

Your kubeconfig is the single credential you need to talk to your cluster. It contains the API server address (https://<your-node-ip>:6443), the cluster CA, and a client certificate with cluster-admin rights.

Don’t have a cluster yet?

Create one in the customer panel before proceeding.

Retrieving it

Download the kubeconfig from the customer panel for your order.

Caution

The kubeconfig grants full administrative access to your cluster. Treat it like a password: don’t commit it to git or share it in plaintext.

Install kubectl

If you don’t have kubectl yet, follow the official install guide. Any recent version works against your cluster.

Using it

The simplest approach is to point the KUBECONFIG environment variable at the downloaded file for the current shell session. Use an absolute path, so it keeps working after you cd elsewhere:

export KUBECONFIG=$HOME/Downloads/kubeconfig-ord-123456.yaml
kubectl get nodes

This keeps your skube cluster separate from any other clusters you already have configured.

Merging it into your default config (optional)

If you’d rather have it alongside your other clusters in ~/.kube/config:

KUBECONFIG=~/.kube/config:./kubeconfig-ord-123456.yaml \
  kubectl config view --flatten > ~/.kube/config.merged
mv ~/.kube/config.merged ~/.kube/config

List the available contexts, then switch to your cluster:

kubectl config get-contexts
kubectl config use-context <your-cluster-name>

Verifying access

kubectl cluster-info
kubectl get nodes

If both commands return without an error, you’re connected. Continue to the kubectl quickstart.