Freelens

Freelens is a fork of the popular Kubernetes cluster management tool, Lens. Unlike the original Lens, Freelens is fully open-source, does not require registration or connection to cloud services, and contains no proprietary components.

Installation

MacOS

To install Freelens on macOS using Homebrew:

brew install --cask freelens

Linux

On Linux, installation is available via Snap:

snap install freelens --classic

Windows

On Windows, use Winget:

winget install Freelensapp.Freelens

Connecting to a Cluster

Freelens uses the standard kubeconfig for connecting to clusters. You can store configuration files in the default system directory ~/.kube, or in any other convenient location.

Download the configuration file from the control panel in the Dashboard section of the created cluster.

Using the Default Folder

If you place the downloaded kubeconfig in the ~/.kube directory, Freelens will automatically detect the cluster. 

Go to Catalog → Clusters, and the cluster will appear in the list.

You can also access it using the Browse Clusters in Catalog button on the start screen.

Custom Configuration Folder

If you want to use a separate directory:

1. Create a folder, for example ~/k8s_config, and move the downloaded kubeconfig file into it.
2. In Freelens, open the Clusters section and click the + button in the lower right corner.
3. Specify the path to the file or to a folder containing one or more kubeconfig files.
4. After adding it, click the cluster name in the list to connect.