How to Keep Your KubeConfig File Tidy

Author

Govardhana M K
October 07, 2025

In partnership with

TechOps Examples

Hey — It's Govardhana MK 👋

Welcome to another technical edition.

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Most K8s clusters are overbuilt and under-optimized.

That’s why in the K8s Optimization Playbook, we built a 6-step framework to guide you through cleanup and scale-up:

1. Patch up the holes (misconfig kills performance)

2. Trim the fat (right-size your pods)

3. Fill the bins (bin-packing = $$$)

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BONUS: at the end, there’s  a Production-Ready Optimization Assessment you’ll want to run your cluster through.

IN TODAY'S EDITION

🧠 Use Case

  • How to Keep Your KubeConfig File Tidy

👀 Remote Jobs

📚️ Resources

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🧠 USE CASE

How to Keep Your KubeConfig File Tidy

As someone who works with multiple Kubernetes clusters, managing the KubeConfig file quickly becomes difficult. Common issues include:

  • Old clusters, users, and contexts staying in the config even after cluster deletion.

  • Manual cleanups becoming tedious and error-prone.

  • Slow and confusing environment switching due to too much clutter.

Over time, this leads to a bloated KubeConfig file, making it harder to manage clusters.

What is a KubeConfig File?

A KubeConfig file holds information about clusters, users, and contexts, allowing Kubernetes to manage connections and enable easy interaction across environments.

Breakdown of a KubeConfig File

Clusters: Contains the details of Kubernetes clusters, such as the API server endpoint and the cluster's Certificate Authority (CA).

Users: Stores credentials (tokens or certificates) for authenticating the clusters.

Contexts: Links a user to a specific cluster, helping you switch between environments.

Current Context: Specifies which user-cluster combination is currently active.

current-context: techopsexamples-context

Managing the KubeConfig File with Kubectl

You can use kubectl to manage the KubeConfig file.

Here are some useful commands:

View the KubeConfig:

kubectl config view

Switch to a different context:

kubectl config use-context techopsexamples-context

Add a new cluster:

kubectl config set-cluster techopsexamples-cluster --server=https://techopsexamples.cluster.com

Add a new user:

kubectl config set-credentials techopsexamples-user --token=abc123tokenxyz

KubeConfig Bloat Problem

Creating many short-lived clusters bloats your KubeConfig file with old data.

References to deleted clusters, unused users, and irrelevant contexts remain, making it harder to manage necessary configurations.

Existing Solutions

There are a few ways to keep your KubeConfig file tidy, but they have limitations:

  • Manual Edits: You can remove entries, but it's slow and error-prone.

  • Splitting Files: Organizes configurations but complicates switching between them.

  • Custom Scripts: Automates cleanup, but requires regular updates and may not adapt to changing setups.

Better Solution:

KubeTidy, a tool built to automatically remove outdated clusters, users, and contexts from your KubeConfig file.

KubeTidy keeps only relevant entries, simplifying management, and backs up your file automatically.

It works on PowerShell (Windows/Linux/macOS) or as a krew plugin with Krew (Linux/macOS).


Sample cleanup summary:

I hope this edition helped you learn something new.

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