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kubekanvas setup-k3d

Create a local k3d Kubernetes cluster for development and testing. k3d runs lightweight k3s Kubernetes clusters inside Docker containers, making it ideal for local development with the KubeKanvas visual IDE.

Usage

kubekanvas setup-k3d [options]

Options

FlagDescriptionDefault
-n, --name <name>Name of the k3d cluster to createkubekanvas

Prerequisites

  • Docker must be installed and running

What It Does

  1. Verifies Docker: Checks that Docker is installed and the daemon is running
  2. Installs k3d: If not present, installs k3d automatically (Homebrew on macOS, wget on Linux)
  3. Installs kubectl: Ensures kubectl is available for cluster management
  4. Creates cluster: Runs k3d cluster create {name} to bootstrap a Kubernetes cluster inside Docker
  5. Configures kubeconfig: The new cluster is automatically added to your kubeconfig and ready for immediate use

Examples

kubekanvas setup-k3d
kubekanvas setup-k3d --name my-dev-cluster

Example Output

$ kubekanvas setup-k3d --name dev 🐳 Docker is running šŸ” Checking k3d... āœ… k3d is installed šŸš€ Creating k3d cluster "dev"... INFO[0000] Creating cluster "dev" INFO[0015] Cluster "dev" created successfully! āœ… Kubernetes cluster "dev" is ready! Run "kubekanvas configure" to register it with KubeKanvas.

After Setup

Once the cluster is created, register it with KubeKanvas:

kubekanvas configure kubekanvas connect

Tip: k3d clusters are ephemeral. You can delete them with k3d cluster delete {name} and recreate them at any time. This makes them perfect for testing Kubernetes deployments designed in the KubeKanvas IDE.

Platform Support

Platformk3d Install Method
macOSHomebrew
Linuxwget from official releases
WindowsNot supported (use WSL2 with Docker Desktop)
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