kubenav: a mobile Kubernetes client you can hold during an incident
kubenav is the navigator for your Kubernetes clusters right in your pocket.
At a glance
- What is it?
- A Flutter app with a Go backend that puts resource lists, logs, a container shell and Prometheus dashboards on a phone, for when the laptop does not load.
- Who is it for?
- kubenav's actual purpose is narrower than a desktop dashboard and that is the point. It is built for the moment when you need to look at cluster state from a phone, and it covers the operations that matter in that moment: resource status, logs, events, a shell, scaling, port forwarding and Prometheus panels.
- Can I use it commercially?
- Yes. MIT is a permissive licence: you can use, modify and sell software built on it, as long as you keep its copyright and licence notices.
- Is it still maintained?
- Yes. The repository last received commits 23 days ago.
- What is it written in?
- Mainly Dart, according to GitHub's language statistics.
Answers come from the project's GitHub data, last synced on September 28, 2026, and from our analysis. They are not legal advice.
Editorial analysis
The same experience as kubectl, on a phone
The README states the aim in one line: kubenav provides the same experience as kubectl for mobile. It is a mobile app to manage Kubernetes clusters and get an overview of the status of resources, and the overview is the emphasis. You get a list of all resources in a cluster, current status information for workloads, and a details view with more.
The operations it supports are the ones you reach for under pressure. View logs or events for a resource, get a shell into a container, edit or delete resources, and scale workloads. Resource usage is included as requests, limits and current usage for Pods and Containers, which is the number you actually want when a pod is being evicted rather than the manifest that created it.
Filters cover Namespace and search by name. Multiple clusters are supported through kubeconfig or a cloud provider, with Google, AWS and Azure named explicitly. Port forwarding creates a connection to a Pod and opens the served page in your browser, which is the feature that turns the phone into a usable access path rather than a read-only viewer.
Two languages in one repository
The repository metadata reports Dart as the primary language, and the tree is consistent with that at first glance: `lib/`, `pubspec.yaml`, `pubspec.lock`, `analysis_options.yaml`, `devtools_options.yaml`, `android/`, `ios/`, `assets/` and `fonts/` are all Flutter project structure.
Then there is `go.mod`, `go.sum`, `cmd/`, `landing/` and `utils/`, which are not. The README explains the two-language split by stating the app is developed using Flutter and Go, so the Go module is a server or helper component living alongside the Flutter client rather than an accidental leftover.
The release notes make the Go side concrete. Version 5.6.0, published on 2026-09-14, updated the Go version to 1.26.1 and the Flutter version to 3.41.6 in the same release, alongside a bump of `google.golang.org/grpc` from 1.72.2 to 1.79.3. Earlier work in the same area includes a change of code generation for the Kubernetes models in 5.5.0 and panic handling in the Go functions in 5.4.0, including catching panics when creating a new Kubernetes client.
That history is a decent guide to the architecture. The Go component is where the Kubernetes API access lives, and it has needed the same defensive work any long-running API client needs.
Prometheus inside the mobile dashboard
The Prometheus integration is the most unusual feature on the list. The README says kubenav lets you view Prometheus metrics directly in the dashboard and to build your own dashboards via the Prometheus plugin.
Two additions in recent releases shaped that integration. Version 5.5.0 added mTLS support for Prometheus and a new AWS Taipei region to the constants, and updated the Prometheus plugin documentation in 5.6.0. mTLS in particular suggests the plugin is expected to talk to a Prometheus that is not on a trusted network.
Building your own dashboards from a phone is the part to weigh carefully. It is genuinely useful to check a metric while standing next to the hardware, and genuinely worse as a place to design a dashboard. The feature is best read as a viewing and quick-adaptation tool rather than a replacement for Grafana.
Custom resource support is the other item that extends beyond the core workload types. The README lists viewing all Custom Resource Definitions and managing Custom Resources, which means an operator running their own operators can inspect those objects without dropping to a terminal.
How it is distributed and what that tells you
Distribution is through the App Store and Google Play, with the store links given as the usage section of the README. There is also a beta channel for people testing new features and giving faster feedback, via Apple TestFlight and the Google Play testing track.
That distribution model is the main thing to understand about the project. It is not self-hosted software you install into your cluster, it is an application you install on a phone and then point at your clusters using a kubeconfig. The credentials live on the device, which is a deliberate trade: you get access from anywhere, and you accept that a phone is now holding cluster credentials.
Version numbering shows an active project rather than a stable one. The recent line runs 5.4.0 in July 2025, 5.5.0 in February 2026 and 5.6.0 in September 2026, and the 5.6.0 notes are dominated by dependency bumps from dependabot rather than features. The maintainer, who authored most of the listed changes, appears to be doing careful dependency maintenance on a small codebase.
A few releases ago, in 5.5.0, the CocoaPods integration was removed, which tells you something about how the iOS build is assembled now.
Comparing this with the usual desktop dashboards
The desktop Kubernetes dashboards fall into two groups. The general purpose ones, Rancher, Portainer and the headlamp-style projects, give you a full browser UI with cluster administration, RBAC management and add-ons. They are the right tool for configuration work.
The command line is the other comparison, and it is the more honest one. kubenav is explicitly positioned against kubectl rather than against a dashboard, and on that axis it wins for one specific situation: reading state when you do not have a terminal in front of you. A screen, a log stream and a metrics panel on a phone is a real capability during an incident.
Where it cannot compete is anything requiring sustained typing. Editing a manifest, applying many resources or wiring an ingress from a phone keyboard is a poor experience by design, and nothing in the feature list suggests that is a goal.
What survives the comparison is the honest framing: this is a monitoring and inspection tool for mobile, not a cluster administration console that happens to fit on a screen.
Editorial conclusion
kubenav's actual purpose is narrower than a desktop dashboard and that is the point. It is built for the moment when you need to look at cluster state from a phone, and it covers the operations that matter in that moment: resource status, logs, events, a shell, scaling, port forwarding and Prometheus panels. Version 5.6.0 shipped on 2026-09-14 with Go 1.26.1 and Flutter 3.41.6 updates. Start with the store build rather than a self-hosted build, since the app is distributed through the App Store and Google Play rather than from source.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a GUI for Kubernetes that runs on a phone?
kubenav is exactly that, distributed through the App Store and Google Play, with a beta track through TestFlight for testing new features. It covers resource overviews, logs, events, a container terminal, scaling, port forwarding, custom resources and Prometheus dashboards, and it connects to clusters via kubeconfig or a Google, AWS or Azure provider.
How do I add a cluster to kubenav?
The README states you can add multiple clusters via kubeconfig or via your preferred cloud provider, with Google, AWS and Azure named as supported. Recent release notes show the cloud provider path is still being extended, since version 5.5.0 added a new AWS region to the constants.
Can I get a shell and view logs in kubenav?
Yes, both are in the feature list. The terminal entry is a shell into a container from the phone, and the logs entry covers viewing the logs of a container or streaming them in realtime. Reading events is also supported in the resource details view.
What is the Prometheus plugin in kubenav?
It lets you view Prometheus metrics inside the kubenav dashboard and build your own dashboards from them. Recent versions added mTLS support for Prometheus in 5.5.0 and updated the plugin documentation in 5.6.0, so it is expected to work against a Prometheus that is not on a trusted network.
What languages is kubenav written in?
The README states the app is developed using Flutter and Go, and the repository tree reflects both. Dart and Flutter project files such as `pubspec.yaml`, `lib/` and `android/` cover the client, while `go.mod`, `cmd/` and `landing/` cover the Go component that handles Kubernetes API access.
Official sources
Add this badge to your README
If you maintain this project, the badge below links readers to this analysis and shows its maintenance status from the daily GitHub snapshot. Paste the markdown into your README; add ?metric=license or ?metric=stars to the image URL for a different field.
[](https://hysenlabs.com/projects/kubenav-kubenav)