kubectl config set

Synopsis

Set an individual value in a kubeconfig file.

PROPERTY_NAME is a dot delimited name where each token represents either an attribute name or a map key. Map keys may not contain dots.

PROPERTY_VALUE is the new value you want to set. Binary fields such as 'certificate-authority-data' expect a base64 encoded string unless the --set-raw-bytes flag is used.

Specifying an attribute name that already exists will merge new fields on top of existing values.

kubectl config set PROPERTY_NAME PROPERTY_VALUE

Examples

  # Set the server field on the my-cluster cluster to https://1.2.3.4
  kubectl config set clusters.my-cluster.server https://1.2.3.4
  
  # Set the certificate-authority-data field on the my-cluster cluster
  kubectl config set clusters.my-cluster.certificate-authority-data $(echo "cert_data_here" | base64 -i -)
  
  # Set the cluster field in the my-context context to my-cluster
  kubectl config set contexts.my-context.cluster my-cluster
  
  # Set the client-key-data field in the cluster-admin user using --set-raw-bytes option
  kubectl config set users.cluster-admin.client-key-data cert_data_here --set-raw-bytes=true

Options

-h, --help

help for set
--set-raw-bytes tristate[=true]

When writing a []byte PROPERTY_VALUE, write the given string directly without base64 decoding.

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

use a particular kubeconfig file
--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)

This page is automatically generated.

If you plan to report an issue with this page, mention that the page is auto-generated in your issue description. The fix may need to happen elsewhere in the Kubernetes project.