CLI Commands

Common Flags

--dir <path>           # project directory (default: .)
--env <name>           # load environments/<name>.kdef
--set key=value        # override variables
--values <file>        # JSON values file for complex variables
--vars-from <file>     # import variable files

Import

# From live cluster
kdef import --namespace my-app --output-dir k8s/

# From YAML files (e.g. helm template output)
kdef import --from-file manifests.yaml --output-dir k8s/

# Preview to stdout
kdef import --namespace my-app

The importer auto-detects:

• Deployments with Services/Ingresses -> deployment blocks
• Deployments without Services -> worker-style deployment blocks (no service {})
• DaemonSets -> daemonset blocks
• StatefulSets (including volumeClaimTemplates) -> statefulset blocks
• CronJobs -> cronjob blocks
• ConfigMaps -> configmap blocks
• ClusterRoles + ClusterRoleBindings -> clusterrole / clusterrolebinding blocks (from YAML files)
• Secret references in env vars -> secret() calls
• Downward-API env vars -> field_ref() calls
• Tolerations, node_selector, host_path.type, container args, privileged security contexts
• Multi-host ingresses, probe settings, init containers, sidecars, volumes

Apply

kdef apply --dir k8s/                     # apply to cluster
kdef apply --dir k8s/ --dry-run           # preview without applying
kdef apply --dir k8s/ --env production    # with environment overrides

Uses kubectl apply --server-side --force-conflicts for clean resource management.

Seal

Encrypt secret values using kubeseal for use in sealedsecret blocks. Requires kubeseal installed and a sealed-secrets controller running in the cluster.

# Encrypt a single value
kdef seal --secret db-credentials --key PASSWORD --value "hunter2"

# Encrypt from stdin
echo -n "hunter2" | kdef seal --secret db-credentials --key PASSWORD

# Specify namespace and controller
kdef seal --secret db-credentials --key PASSWORD --value "hunter2" \
  --namespace production --controller-name sealed-secrets

The command outputs the encrypted blob to stdout, plus a usage snippet showing how to paste it into a .kdef file.

Seal Secret

Seal an entire Kubernetes Secret into a ready-to-use sealedsecret block. Fetches the Secret from the cluster or reads from a YAML file, decodes all values, encrypts each key with kubeseal, and outputs the complete block.

# From live cluster
kdef seal-secret --name db-credentials --namespace production

# From a YAML file
kdef seal-secret --from-file secret.yaml

# With custom controller
kdef seal-secret --name db-credentials --namespace production \
  --controller-name sealed-secrets

Output is a complete sealedsecret block ready to paste into a .kdef file.

Install Hook

Install a git pre-commit hook that runs kdef validate before each commit, aborting the commit if validation fails. The hook walks up from --dir to find the repo root (also handles git worktrees and submodules) and writes .git/hooks/pre-commit.

# Fresh install in the current repo
kdef install-hook

# Run from anywhere inside the repo, or point at a different project
kdef install-hook --dir path/to/project

# Append the kdef check to an existing pre-commit hook (safe, idempotent)
kdef install-hook --append

# Overwrite an existing hook with a standalone kdef hook
kdef install-hook --force

The generated script skips validation with a warning if kdef is not in PATH, so cloning the repo on a machine without kdef installed does not block commits. With --append, the kdef block is wrapped in # >>> kdef validate >>> / # <<< kdef validate <<< sentinels and re-running --append is a no-op. --append and --force are mutually exclusive.