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OKD CLI tools overview

OKD offers a set of command-line interface (CLI) tools that enable users to perform various administration and development operations from the terminal. These tools expose simple commands to manage the applications, as well as interact with each component of the system.

For example, you can use the CLI to complete the following operations:

  • Manage clusters

  • Build, deploy, and manage applications

  • Manage deployment processes

  • Create and maintain Operator catalogs

List of CLI tools

Manage your OKD cluster, applications, and Operators from the terminal by using primary command-line interface (CLI) tools.

The following list details these primary CLI tools:

  • OpenShift CLI (oc): This is the most commonly used CLI tool by OKD users. Cluster administrators and developers can use it to perform end-to-end operations across OKD from the terminal, including working directly with project source code using command scripts.

  • Kubernetes CLI (kubectl): OKD is conformant with Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Kubernetes and fully supports kubectl as a client. The OpenShift CLI (oc) is a superset of kubectl, where both CLI tools are included in the OKD clients download. You can use the standard kubectl commands against OKD clusters without any compatibility issues.

  • Helm CLI (helm): Helm is a package manager for Kubernetes. The helm CLI provides commands to install, upgrade, and manage Helm charts on a cluster.

  • opm CLI: The opm CLI tool helps Operator developers and cluster administrators create and maintain catalogs of Operators.

  • Knative CLI: The Knative (kn) CLI tool provides commands to interact with OpenShift Serverless components, such as Knative Serving and Eventing.

  • Pipelines CLI (tkn): OpenShift Pipelines is a continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) solution in OKD, which internally uses Tekton. The tkn CLI tool provides commands to interact with OpenShift Pipelines.

Additional resources