Install krew with Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix, pacman, scoop, winget, apk

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Upstream docs
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• kubectl-krew

Project history

The krew repository was created on 2018-07-12, and the first v0.1.0-alpha.1 release was published on 2018-07-30. The project README describes Krew as a package manager for kubectl plugins that helps users discover, install, and manage plugins, and helps plugin developers package and distribute plugins across platforms.

Krew exists because kubectl plugins are ordinary executables named with the kubectl- prefix and found on PATH. Kubernetes documentation describes that plugin mechanism and identifies Krew as a SIG CLI-maintained way to discover and install community plugins.

Adoption history

Krew became the de facto index-driven distribution channel for kubectl plugins because it solved discovery and update management for a plugin system that otherwise only specifies executable naming. The Kubernetes blog recommended Krew in 2020 for plugin installation experience and discoverability.

The Krew README says that more than 200 kubectl plugins were available through Krew in the documentation state used for this 2026-07-01 batch, showing a mature plugin catalog rather than a single-tool installer.

How it is used

Users install Krew as the kubectl-krew plugin, add its bin directory to PATH, and then run commands such as kubectl krew search, kubectl krew install, kubectl krew list, kubectl krew update, and kubectl krew upgrade.

Plugin authors package manifests in the krew-index repository so their kubectl plugins can be discovered and installed consistently on Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Why package nerds care

Krew is a package manager distributed as a plugin for the tool whose plugins it manages, which makes it a neat recursive packaging artifact. It also codifies an index and lifecycle around kubectl plugins without changing kubectl's intentionally simple PATH-based plugin contract.

Timeline

• 2018-07-12: The kubernetes-sigs/krew repository was created.
• 2018-07-30: Krew v0.1.0-alpha.1 was released.
• 2020-02-28: The Kubernetes blog recommended Krew for kubectl plugin distribution and discoverability.
• 2026-02-26: Krew v0.5.0 was released.

Related projects

• kubectl is the host CLI whose plugin convention Krew uses. krew-index is the companion plugin index. Kubernetes SIG CLI is the community home for the project.

Sources

• https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/krew
• https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/krew-index
• https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/krew/releases/tag/v0.1.0-alpha.1
• https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/krew/releases/tag/v0.5.0
• https://krew.sigs.k8s.io/
• https://krew.sigs.k8s.io/docs
• https://kubernetes.io/blog/2020/02/28/bring-your-ideas-to-the-world-with-kubectl-plugins/
• https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/extend-kubectl/kubectl-plugins/