kubectl auth can-i

Synopsis

Check whether an action is allowed.

VERB is a logical Kubernetes API verb like 'get', 'list', 'watch', 'delete', etc. TYPE is a Kubernetes resource. Shortcuts and groups will be resolved. NONRESOURCEURL is a partial URL that starts with "/". NAME is the name of a particular Kubernetes resource. This command pairs nicely with impersonation. See --as global flag.

kubectl auth can-i VERB [TYPE | TYPE/NAME | NONRESOURCEURL]

Examples

  # Check to see if I can create pods in any namespace
  kubectl auth can-i create pods --all-namespaces
  
  # Check to see if I can list deployments in my current namespace
  kubectl auth can-i list deployments.apps
  
  # Check to see if service account "foo" of namespace "dev" can list pods in the namespace "prod"
  # You must be allowed to use impersonation for the global option "--as"
  kubectl auth can-i list pods --as=system:serviceaccount:dev:foo -n prod
  
  # Check to see if I can do everything in my current namespace ("*" means all)
  kubectl auth can-i '*' '*'
  
  # Check to see if I can get the job named "bar" in namespace "foo"
  kubectl auth can-i list jobs.batch/bar -n foo
  
  # Check to see if I can read pod logs
  kubectl auth can-i get pods --subresource=log
  
  # Check to see if I can access the URL /logs/
  kubectl auth can-i get /logs/
  
  # Check to see if I can approve certificates.k8s.io
  kubectl auth can-i approve certificates.k8s.io
  
  # List all allowed actions in namespace "foo"
  kubectl auth can-i --list --namespace=foo

Options

-A, --all-namespaces

If true, check the specified action in all namespaces.
-h, --help

help for can-i
--list

If true, prints all allowed actions.
--no-headers

If true, prints allowed actions without headers
-q, --quiet

If true, suppress output and just return the exit code.
--subresource string

SubResource such as pod/log or deployment/scale

Parent Options Inherited

--as string

Username to impersonate for the operation. User could be a regular user or a service account in a namespace.
--as-group strings

Group to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.
--as-uid string

UID to impersonate for the operation.
--as-user-extra strings

User extras to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple values for the same key.
--cache-dir string     Default: "$HOME/.kube/cache"

Default cache directory
--certificate-authority string

Path to a cert file for the certificate authority
--client-certificate string

Path to a client certificate file for TLS
--client-key string

Path to a client key file for TLS
--cluster string

The name of the kubeconfig cluster to use
--context string

The name of the kubeconfig context to use
--disable-compression

If true, opt-out of response compression for all requests to the server
--insecure-skip-tls-verify

If true, the server's certificate will not be checked for validity. This will make your HTTPS connections insecure
--kubeconfig string

Path to the kubeconfig file to use for CLI requests.
--kuberc string

Path to the kuberc file to use for preferences. This can be disabled by exporting KUBECTL_KUBERC=false feature gate or turning off the feature KUBERC=off.
--match-server-version

Require server version to match client version
-n, --namespace string

If present, the namespace scope for this CLI request
--password string

Password for basic authentication to the API server
--profile string     Default: "none"

Name of profile to capture. One of (none|cpu|heap|goroutine|threadcreate|block|mutex|trace)
--profile-output string     Default: "profile.pprof"

Name of the file to write the profile to
--request-timeout string     Default: "0"

The length of time to wait before giving up on a single server request. Non-zero values should contain a corresponding time unit (e.g. 1s, 2m, 3h). A value of zero means don't timeout requests.
-s, --server string

The address and port of the Kubernetes API server
--storage-driver-buffer-duration duration     Default: 1m0s

Writes in the storage driver will be buffered for this duration, and committed to the non memory backends as a single transaction
--storage-driver-db string     Default: "cadvisor"

database name
--storage-driver-host string     Default: "localhost:8086"

database host:port
--storage-driver-password string     Default: "root"

database password
--storage-driver-secure

use secure connection with database
--storage-driver-table string     Default: "stats"

table name
--storage-driver-user string     Default: "root"

database username
--tls-server-name string

Server name to use for server certificate validation. If it is not provided, the hostname used to contact the server is used
--token string

Bearer token for authentication to the API server
--user string

The name of the kubeconfig user to use
--username string

Username for basic authentication to the API server
--version version[=true]

--version, --version=raw prints version information and quits; --version=vX.Y.Z... sets the reported version
--warnings-as-errors

Treat warnings received from the server as errors and exit with a non-zero exit code

See Also


Last modified December 21, 2025 at 5:18 PM PST: Update kubectl reference for v1.35 (fd1e78a94a)

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