User-friendly Kubernetes logging

Kubetail is a real-time logging dashboard for Kubernetes

Key Features

Clean, easy-to-use interface
View your log messages in real-time
Filter logs by:
- Workload (e.g. Deployment, CronJob, StatefulSet)
- Absolute or relative time range
- Node properties (e.g. availability zone, CPU architecture, node ID)
- Search messages using grep
Use web dashboard or CLI tool
Web dashboard can be installed on desktop or in cluster
Uses your Kubernetes API to retrieve log messages (private by default)
Open source (Apache-2.0 license)

Quickstart (Desktop)

Package Managers

First, install the Kubetail CLI tool (kubetail) via your favorite package manager:


# Homebrew
brew install kubetail
 
# Krew
kubectl krew install kubetail
 
# Snap
sudo snap install kubetail
 
# Winget
winget install kubetail
 
# Chocolatey
choco install kubetail
 
# Scoop
scoop install kubetail
 
# MacPorts
sudo port install kubetail
 
# Ubuntu/Mint (apt)
add-apt-repository ppa:kubetail/kubetail
apt update && apt install kubetail-cli
 
# Fedora/CentOS-Stream/RHEL/Amazonlinux/Mageia (copr)
dnf copr enable kubetail/kubetail
dnf install kubetail
 
# SUSE (zypper)
zypper addrepo 'https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/kubetail/$releasever/' kubetail
zypper refresh && zypper install kubetail-cli
 
# Alpine (apk)
apk add kubetail --repository=https://dl-cdn.alpinelinux.org/alpine/edge/testing
 
# Arch Linux (AUR)
yay -S --noconfirm kubetail-cli
 
# Gentoo (GURU)
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~$(portageq envvar ARCH)" emerge dev-util/kubetail
 
# Nix (Flake)
nix profile add github:kubetail-org/kubetail-nix
 
# Nix (Classic)
nix-env -i -f https://github.com/kubetail-org/kubetail-nix/archive/refs/heads/main.tar.gz
 
# asdf
asdf plugin add kubetail https://github.com/kubetail-org/asdf-kubetail.git
asdf install kubetail latest

Next, start the web dashboard using the serve subcommand:


kubetail serve

This command will open http://localhost:7500/ in your default browser. You can also view logs directly in your terminal using the logs subcommand:


kubetail logs frontend:deployments/web --tail=10 --follow

Have fun tailing your logs!

Shell script

First, download and run the install.sh script:


curl -sS https://www.kubetail.com/install.sh | bash

Next, start the web dashboard using the serve subcommand:


kubetail serve

This command will open http://localhost:7500/ in your default browser. You can also view logs directly in your terminal using the logs subcommand:


kubetail logs frontend:deployments/web --tail=10 --follow

Have fun tailing your logs!

Binaries

Download the binary for your OS/Arch (from the latest release binaries ):

Rename the file and make it executable:


mv <filename> kubetail
chmod a+x kubetail

Next, start the web dashboard using the serve subcommand:


kubetail serve

This command will open http://localhost:7500/ in your default browser. You can also view logs directly in your terminal using the logs subcommand:


kubetail logs frontend:deployments/web --tail=10 --follow

Have fun tailing your logs!

Quickstart (Cluster)

Helm

First, add the Kubetail org’s chart repository, then install the “kubetail” chart:


helm repo add kubetail https://kubetail-org.github.io/helm-charts/
helm install kubetail kubetail/kubetail --namespace kubetail-system --create-namespace

For more information on how to configure the helm chart, see the chart’s values.yaml file.

To access the web dashboard you can expose it as an ingress using the chart or you can use your usual access methods such as kubectl port-forward:


kubectl port-forward -n kubetail-system svc/kubetail-dashboard 8080:8080

Visit http://localhost:8080

YAML Manifest

First, create a namespace for the Kubetail resources:


kubectl create namespace kubetail-system

Next, choose your authentication mode (cluster or token) and apply the latest manifest file:


# For cluster-based authentication use kubetail-clusterauth.yaml:
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubetail-org/helm-charts/releases/latest/download/kubetail-clusterauth.yaml
 
# For token-based authentication use kubetail-tokenauth.yaml:
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/kubetail-org/helm-charts/releases/latest/download/kubetail-tokenauth.yaml

To access the web dashboard you can use your usual access methods such as kubectl port-forward:


kubectl port-forward -n kubetail-system svc/kubetail-dashboard 8080:8080

Visit http://localhost:8080

Minikube

As of minikube v1.36.0, you can install Kubetail as an addon:


minikube addons enable kubetail

Once the Kubetail pods are running in the cluster you can access it via a service:


minikube service -n kubetail-system kubetail-dashboard

Quickstart (Docker)

Docker Run

The Kubetail CLI tool (kubetail) can be run inside a container using the kubetail-cli docker image available on these container registries:


* Docker Hub - docker.io/kubetail/kubetail-cli
* GitHub - ghcr.io/kubetail-org/kubetail-cli

To use the CLI tool locally inside a container with docker run you need to mount your local .kube/config file into a kubetail-cli container then use normal CLI commands :


docker run --rm -it \
  -v ~/.kube/config:/root/.kube/config:ro \
  kubetail/kubetail-cli logs \
  --kubeconfig /root/.kube/config \
  -f \
  deployments/my-app

You can also use the sh entrypoint to start an interactive session:


docker run --rm -it \
  -v ~/.kube/config:/root/.kube/config:ro \
  --entrypoint sh \
  kubetail/kubetail-cli

Docker Compose

The Kubetail CLI tool (kubetail) can be run inside a container using the kubetail-cli docker image available on these container registries:


* Docker Hub - docker.io/kubetail/kubetail-cli
* GitHub - ghcr.io/kubetail-org/kubetail-cli

To use the CLI tool locally inside a container with docker-compose you can use this docker-compose.yml config file to get started:


curl -LO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubetail-org/kubetail/refs/heads/main/config/examples/docker-compose.yml
docker-compose up

This will mount your local .kube/config file into a kubetail-cli container and start the dashboard server at http://localhost:7500 .

Kubernetes Pod

The Kubetail CLI tool (kubetail) can be run inside a container using the kubetail-cli docker image available on these container registries:


* Docker Hub - docker.io/kubetail/kubetail-cli
* GitHub - ghcr.io/kubetail-org/kubetail-cli

To use the CLI tool inside a cluster you can use this kubetail-cli-pod.yaml manifest file to get started:


kubectl add -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubetail-org/kubetail/refs/heads/main/config/examples/kubetail-cli-pod.yaml

This will start a kubetail-cli container inside the default namespace with access to pod logs in the same namespace. Once the pod is running you can exec into it and run CLI commands using the --in-cluster flag:


kubectl exec -it kubetail-cli -- sh
# ./kubetail logs --in-cluster -f deployments/my-app