Kai - Kubernetes MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for managing Kubernetes clusters through LLM clients like Claude and Ollama.

Overview

Kai provides a bridge between large language models (LLMs) and your Kubernetes clusters, enabling natural language interaction with Kubernetes resources. The server exposes a comprehensive set of tools for managing clusters, namespaces, pods, deployments, services, and other Kubernetes resources.

Features

Core Workloads

• Pods - Create, list, get, delete, and stream logs
• Deployments - Create, list, describe, and update
• Jobs - Batch workload management (create, get, list, delete)
• CronJobs - Scheduled batch workloads (create, get, list, delete)

Networking

• Services - Create, get, list, and delete
• Ingress - HTTP/HTTPS routing, TLS configuration (create, get, list, update, delete)

Configuration

• ConfigMaps - Configuration management (create, get, list, update, delete)
• Secrets - Secret management (create, get, list, update, delete)
• Namespaces - Namespace management (create, get, list, delete)

Cluster Operations

• Context Management - Switch contexts, list contexts, rename, delete
• Nodes - Node monitoring, cordoning, and draining
• Cluster Health - Cluster status and resource metrics

Storage

• Persistent Volumes - PV and PVC management
• Storage Classes - Storage class operations

Security

• RBAC - Roles, RoleBindings, and ServiceAccounts

Utilities

• Port Forwarding - Forward ports to pods and services (start, stop, list sessions)

Advanced

• Custom Resources - CRD and custom resource operations
• Events - Event streaming and filtering
• API Discovery - API resource exploration

Requirements

The server connects to your current kubectl context by default. Ensure you have access to a Kubernetes cluster configured for kubectl (e.g., minikube, Rancher Desktop, kind, EKS, GKE, AKS).

Installation

go install github.com/basebandit/kai/cmd/kai@latest

CLI Options

kai [options]

Options:
  -kubeconfig string   Path to kubeconfig file (default "~/.kube/config")
  -context string      Name for the loaded context (default "local")
  -transport string    Transport mode: stdio (default) or sse
  -sse-addr string     Address for SSE server (default ":8080")
  -log-format string   Log format: json (default) or text
  -log-level string    Log level: debug, info, warn, error (default "info")
  -version             Show version information

Logs are written to stderr in structured JSON format by default, making them easy to parse:

{"time":"2024-01-15T10:30:00Z","level":"INFO","msg":"kubeconfig loaded","path":"/home/user/.kube/config","context":"local"}
{"time":"2024-01-15T10:30:00Z","level":"INFO","msg":"starting server","transport":"stdio"}

Configuration

Claude Desktop

Edit your Claude Desktop configuration:

# macOS
code ~/Library/Application\ Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

# Linux
code ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add the server configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kubernetes": {
      "command": "/path/to/kai"
    }
  }
}

With custom kubeconfig:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kubernetes": {
      "command": "/path/to/kai",
      "args": ["-kubeconfig", "/path/to/custom/kubeconfig"]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

Add to your Cursor MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kubernetes": {
      "command": "/path/to/kai"
    }
  }
}

Continue

Add to your Continue configuration (~/.continue/config.json):

{
  "experimental": {
    "modelContextProtocolServers": [
      {
        "transport": {
          "type": "stdio",
          "command": "/path/to/kai"
        }
      }
    ]
  }
}

SSE Mode (Web Clients)

For web-based clients or custom integrations, run in SSE mode:

kai -transport=sse -sse-addr=:8080

Then connect to http://localhost:8080/sse.

Custom Kubeconfig

By default, Kai uses ~/.kube/config. You can specify a different kubeconfig:

kai -kubeconfig=/path/to/custom/kubeconfig -context=my-cluster

Usage Examples

Once configured, you can interact with your cluster using natural language:

• "List all pods in the default namespace"
• "Create a deployment named nginx with 3 replicas using the nginx:latest image"
• "Show me the logs for pod my-app"
• "Delete the service named backend"
• "Create a cronjob that runs every 5 minutes"
• "Create an ingress for my-app with TLS enabled"
• "Port forward service nginx on port 8080:80"

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see our contributing guidelines for more information.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

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