kubectl-sdc#

kubectl-sdc is a kubectl plugin that extends the Kubernetes CLI with SDC-specific commands. It provides visibility into the state of SDC-managed targets directly from the command line, without needing to query raw Kubernetes resources.

Use cases#

Inspect running config — retrieve the actual configuration present on a managed device, in a human-readable format.
Trace intent ownership — use blame to see which Config CR (or the device itself) is the source of each configuration leaf, and detect where higher-priority intents are overriding others.
Detect and revert deviations — list configuration paths where the device has drifted from its intended state, and selectively revert them.

Installation#

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sdcio/kubectl-sdc/main/install.sh | sh

Alternatively, if you have Go installed:

go install github.com/sdcio/kubectl-sdc/cmd/kubectl-sdc@main

Once installed, kubectl sdc is available as a kubectl plugin. The install script also installs kubectl_complete-sdc for tab-completion support.

Key commands#

Command	Description
`kubectl sdc blame --target <name>`	Tree view of the running config showing which intent owns each leaf
`kubectl sdc runningconfig --target <name>`	Retrieve the running config from the data-server
`kubectl sdc deviation --target <name>`	List deviations (drifts between intended and actual config) for a target
`kubectl sdc apply -f <file>`	Apply a `TargetClearDeviation` manifest to revert selected deviations

Both blame and deviation support --filter-* flags for narrowing output by path, leaf name, or owner, and an --interactive mode backed by a fuzzy finder.

Workflow example#

The following walkthrough inspects a live SDC-managed target, finds a deviation, and reverts it.

# 1. See the running config for a target in xpath format
kubectl sdc runningconfig --target srl1 --format xpath

# 2. Check which intent owns each config leaf — filter to just the interface subtree
kubectl sdc blame --target srl1 --filter-path /interface

# 3. List all deviations on the target
kubectl sdc deviation --target srl1

# 4. Narrow down to deviations under /interface only
kubectl sdc deviation --target srl1 --filter-path /interface

# 5. Render the selected deviations as a TargetClearDeviation manifest
kubectl sdc deviation --target srl1 --filter-path /interface --format resource-yaml

# 6. Apply the manifest to revert the deviations
kubectl sdc deviation --target srl1 --filter-path /interface --format resource-yaml \
  | kubectl sdc apply -f -

Note

All commands use the current kubectl context and namespace.

Further reference#

Full command reference, filtering options, and interactive mode documentation are available in the kubectl-sdc GitHub repository.