Installing the kots CLI

The Replicated app manager uses the kots CLI, which is a kubectl-based plugin, to help manage Kubernetes Off-The-Shelf software. This plugin runs locally on any computer that has kubectl installed.

Prerequisite

Before you install the kots CLI, install kubectl on your machine.

note

If you are using an embedded Kubernetes installer-created cluster, both tools are already pre-installed.

Install the kots CLI

To install the latest version of the kots CLI, run:

curl https://kots.io/install | bash

To install a specific version of the kots CLI, run:

curl https://kots.io/install/<version> | bash

To verify your installation, run:

kubectl kots --help

Install the kots CLI Without Root Access

For computers without root access or computers that cannot write to the /usr/local/bin directory, the kots CLI can be downloaded using the following steps:

1. Download the release for your operating system from https://github.com/replicatedhq/kots/releases/latest (Linux and MacOS are supported).
2. Unpack the release.
3. Rename the kots executable to kubectl-kots.
4. Copy the renamed kubectl-kots to anywhere on the PATH.