GitHub - lukaszraczylo/kportal: TUI cli for painless kubernetes port forwarding in dev environments

Kubernetes port-forward manager with interactive terminal UI

kportal manages multiple Kubernetes port-forwards with an interactive terminal interface. It provides real-time status updates, automatic reconnection, hot-reload configuration, and mDNS hostname publishing.

✨ Features

Interactive TUI - Terminal interface with keyboard navigation
Live management - Add, edit, and delete port-forwards without restarting
Auto-reconnect - Exponential backoff retry on connection failures
Hot-reload - Configuration changes applied automatically
Health monitoring - Multiple check methods with stale connection detection
Multi-context - Support for multiple Kubernetes contexts and namespaces
Pod restart handling - Automatic reconnection when pods restart
Label selectors - Dynamic pod targeting using label selectors
Port conflict detection - Validates port availability with PID information
mDNS hostnames - Access forwards via .local hostnames
HTTP traffic logging - Real-time HTTP request/response logging for debugging
Connection benchmarking - Built-in HTTP benchmarking with latency statistics
Headless mode - Background operation for scripting and automation

🔄 Comparison with Other Tools

Feature	kportal	k9s	Kube Forwarder	kftray
Interface	Terminal TUI	Terminal TUI	Desktop GUI (Electron)	Desktop GUI + TUI
Persistent Config	✅ YAML file	❌ Session only	✅ JSON bookmarks	✅ JSON + Git sync
Auto-reconnect	✅ Exponential backoff	❌ Manual	✅ Basic	✅ Watch API
Hot-reload Config	✅ File watch + SIGHUP	❌	❌	❌
Health Checks	✅ TCP + data-transfer	❌	❌	❌
Stale Connection Detection	✅ Age + idle tracking	❌	❌	❌
HTTP Traffic Logging	✅ Built-in viewer	❌	❌	✅
Connection Benchmarking	✅ Built-in	✅ Via Hey	❌	❌
mDNS Hostnames	✅ `.local` domains	❌	❌	❌
Label Selectors	✅	✅	❌	✅
Multi-context	✅	✅	✅	✅
Headless Mode	✅	❌	❌	❌
System Tray	❌	❌	❌	✅
UDP Support	❌	❌	❌	✅ Proxy relay
Dependencies	Single binary	Single binary	Electron	Tauri + kubectl

📦 Installation

Homebrew (macOS)

brew install --cask lukaszraczylo/taps/kportal

Note: If you previously installed via brew install lukaszraczylo/taps/kportal (formula), uninstall first:
brew uninstall kportal

Quick Install

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lukaszraczylo/kportal/main/install.sh | bash

The installer downloads kportal-<version>-checksums.txt from the same release and verifies the archive's SHA-256 before installing. If cosign is on your PATH, the checksums file's keyless cosign signature is also verified against the shared-actions reusable workflow identity.

Variable	Effect
`DRY_RUN=1`	Download and verify only; do not install
`SKIP_COSIGN=1`	Skip cosign signature verification (SHA-256 is still enforced)

Manual Download

Download binaries from the releases page.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/lukaszraczylo/kportal.git
cd kportal
make build && make install

Verifying Release Signatures

All release checksums are signed with cosign using keyless signing. To verify:

# Download the checksum file and its sigstore bundle from the release
cosign verify-blob \
  --certificate-identity-regexp "^https://github\.com/lukaszraczylo/shared-actions/\.github/workflows/go-release\.yaml@refs/heads/main$" \
  --certificate-oidc-issuer "https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com" \
  --bundle "kportal-<version>-checksums.txt.sigstore.json" \
  kportal-<version>-checksums.txt

🚀 Quick Start

Create .kportal.yaml:

contexts:
  - name: production
    namespaces:
      - name: backend
        forwards:
          - resource: service/postgres
            protocol: tcp
            port: 5432
            localPort: 5432
            alias: prod-db

          - resource: service/api
            protocol: tcp
            port: 8080
            localPort: 8080
            alias: api
            httpLog: true  # Enable HTTP traffic logging

Run:

kportal

Keyboard Controls

Key	Action
`↑↓` / `j/k`	Navigate
`Space` / `Enter`	Toggle forward
`n`	Add new forward
`e`	Edit forward
`d`	Delete forward
`b`	Benchmark connection
`l`	View HTTP logs
`q`	Quit

📖 Configuration

Basic Structure

contexts:
  - name: <context-name>
    namespaces:
      - name: <namespace-name>
        forwards:
          - resource: <type>/<name>
            protocol: tcp
            port: <remote-port>
            localPort: <local-port>
            alias: <display-name>      # optional
            selector: <label-selector> # optional
            httpLog: true              # optional - enable HTTP logging

Forward Options

Field	Required	Description
`resource`	Yes	Resource type and name (e.g., `service/postgres`, `pod/my-app`)
`protocol`	Yes	Protocol (`tcp`)
`port`	Yes	Remote port
`localPort`	Yes	Local port
`alias`	No	Display name and mDNS hostname
`selector`	No	Label selector for pod resolution
`httpLog`	No	Enable HTTP traffic logging (`true`/`false`)

Resource Formats

Format	Description
`service/name`	Service forwarding
`pod/name`	Direct pod by name
`pod/prefix`	Pod by prefix (matches `prefix-*`)
`pod` + `selector`	Pod by label selector
`deployment/name`	Deployment

Health Check Configuration

healthCheck:
  interval: "3s"           # Check frequency
  timeout: "2s"            # Check timeout
  method: "data-transfer"  # tcp-dial or data-transfer
  maxConnectionAge: "25m"  # Reconnect before k8s timeout
  maxIdleTime: "10m"       # Detect idle connections

reliability:
  tcpKeepalive: "30s"
  dialTimeout: "30s"
  retryOnStale: true

Health check methods:

tcp-dial - Fast TCP connection test
data-transfer - Verifies tunnel functionality by attempting data read

Connection age reconnection only triggers when the connection is also idle, preventing interruption of active transfers like database dumps.

mDNS Hostnames

Enable mDNS to access forwards via .local hostnames:

mdns:
  enabled: true

contexts:
  - name: production
    namespaces:
      - name: default
        forwards:
          - resource: service/postgres
            port: 5432
            localPort: 5432
            alias: prod-db  # Accessible via prod-db.local:5432

Explicit alias becomes <alias>.local
Without alias, hostname is generated from resource name (service/redis → redis.local)
Works on macOS (Bonjour) and Linux (avahi-daemon)

Verify registration:

dns-sd -B _kportal._tcp local       # macOS
avahi-browse -t _kportal._tcp       # Linux

Usage

Interactive Mode

kportal

Verbose Mode

kportal -v

Headless Mode

Run without TUI for scripting and automation:

kportal -headless

Headless mode emits both structured and standard-library logs to stderr by default (suitable for redirecting to a log file or systemd journal). The -v flag controls log level (debug vs info), not destination.

Combines well with verbose mode for background operation:

kportal -headless -v 2>kportal.log &

Validate Configuration

kportal --check

Custom Config File

kportal -c /path/to/config.yaml

Generate Forwards from a Cluster

The generate subcommand discovers services in a Kubernetes context and lets you interactively pick which ones to forward. Selected entries are appended to the config file with consecutive local ports starting from a value you choose.

kportal generate --context=my-cluster
kportal generate --context=my-cluster --config=/path/to/.kportal.yaml
kportal generate --context=my-cluster --dry-run

Flag	Description
`--context`	(required) Kubernetes context to scan
`--config`	Path to kportal config file (default: `.kportal.yaml`)
`--dry-run`	Print the planned forwards but do not modify the config

The interactive flow has three steps:

Namespaces — multi-select with space, toggle-all with a, filter with /.
Services — same controls; rows already present in the config are locked off, and non-TCP ports are skipped (UDP is not supported by kportal's forward layer).
Port assignment — choose a starting local port (default 10000, must be ≥ 1024). Local ports are assigned consecutively in stable order, skipping any already in use.

Press enter on the final step to save (or to print and exit when --dry-run is set), b to go back, or esc to cancel.

Status Indicators

Indicator	Description
`● Active`	Connection healthy
`○ Starting`	Initial connection (10s grace period)
`◐ Reconnecting`	Reconnecting after failure
`✗ Error`	Connection failed
`○ Disabled`	Manually disabled

Advanced Features

HTTP Traffic Logging

Press l in the TUI to view real-time HTTP traffic for a selected forward. The log viewer shows:

Column	Description
TIME	Request timestamp
METHOD	HTTP method (GET, POST, etc.)
STATUS	Response status code
LATENCY	Request duration
PATH	Request path

List view shortcuts:

Key	Action
`↑/↓`	Navigate entries
`Enter`	View request details
`g/G`	Jump to top/bottom
`a`	Toggle auto-scroll
`f`	Cycle filter mode (All → Non-2xx → Errors)
`/`	Search by path or method
`c`	Clear all filters
`q`	Close log viewer

Detail view:

Press Enter on any entry to see full request/response details including:

Request and response headers (alphabetically sorted)
Request and response bodies
Timing information and status codes

Key	Action
`↑/↓`	Scroll content
`PgUp/PgDn`	Scroll by page
`g`	Jump to top
`c`	Copy response body to clipboard
`Esc/q`	Return to list

Body display features:

JSON formatting - JSON bodies are pretty-printed with syntax highlighting
Compression handling - gzip/deflate content is automatically decompressed
Binary detection - Binary content shows a placeholder instead of garbled data

Filter modes:

All - Show all entries
Non-2xx - Hide successful (2xx) responses
Errors - Show only 4xx and 5xx responses

Toggling per-forward logging:

In the add/edit wizard, press h on the confirmation step to toggle httpLog on or off for the current forward. The wizard preserves any advanced httpLog keys (logFile, includeHeaders, maxBodySize, filterPath) you set in YAML.

Header redaction:

When httpLog.includeHeaders: true is set, sensitive header values are automatically replaced with [REDACTED]. The header name is preserved so you can see that an Authorization header was present without exposing its value. Redacted headers include Authorization, Cookie, Set-Cookie, X-Api-Key, X-Auth-Token, X-Csrf-Token, Proxy-Authorization, X-Access-Token, and any header whose name contains token, secret, password, or apikey. This is always on and cannot be disabled.

Advanced configuration:

forwards:
  - resource: service/api
    port: 8080
    localPort: 8080
    httpLog:
      enabled: true
      includeHeaders: true   # values of sensitive headers are redacted
      maxBodySize: 65536     # bytes; 0 = unlimited
      filterPath: "/api/"    # only log paths matching this substring
      logFile: "api.log"     # append entries to a file in addition to the in-memory ring

Connection Benchmarking

Press b in the TUI to benchmark a selected forward. Configure:

URL Path - Target endpoint (default: /)
Method - HTTP method (GET, POST, etc.)
Concurrency - Number of parallel workers
Requests - Total number of requests

Results include:

Success/failure counts
Min/Max/Avg latency
P50/P95/P99 percentiles
Throughput (requests/sec)
Status code distribution

Hot-Reload

Configuration changes are applied automatically. Manual reload:

kill -HUP $(pgrep kportal)

Port Conflict Detection

kportal validates port availability at startup and during hot-reload, showing which process is using conflicting ports.

Retry Strategy

Exponential backoff: 1s → 2s → 4s → 8s → 10s (max). Retries continue indefinitely until connection succeeds.

Migration from kftray

kportal --convert configs.json --convert-output .kportal.yaml

Signal Handling

Ctrl+C / SIGTERM - Graceful shutdown
SIGHUP - Reload configuration

🐛 Troubleshooting

Port Already in Use

lsof -i :<port>
kill <pid>

Connection Refused

Verify pod is running: kubectl get pods -n <namespace>
Verify port is correct: kubectl describe pod <pod>
Check service endpoints: kubectl get endpoints <service>

Context Not Found

kubectl config get-contexts

Context names containing @, ., :, or / (e.g. admin@home, user@cluster.example.com, GKE dotted names, EKS ARNs) are accepted by the config validator.

🔧 Development

Prerequisites

Go 1.23+
Kubernetes cluster access
kubectl configured

Build

make build    # Build binary
make test     # Run tests
make all      # fmt, vet, staticcheck, test
make install  # Install locally

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Telemetry

On startup this binary sends a single anonymous adoption ping — project name, version, timestamp; no identifiers, no command output, no payload contents. Fire-and-forget with a 2-second timeout; cannot block startup or panic.

See oss-telemetry — Disabling telemetry for the exact wire format, source, and full opt-out documentation.

Quick opt-out: set any of DO_NOT_TRACK=1, OSS_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1, or KPORTAL_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.github		.github
Formula		Formula
cmd/kportal		cmd/kportal
docs		docs
internal		internal
.gitignore		.gitignore
.golangci.yml		.golangci.yml
.goreleaser.yaml		.goreleaser.yaml
.kportal.yaml		.kportal.yaml
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
Makefile		Makefile
README.md		README.md
WIZARD_USAGE.md		WIZARD_USAGE.md
go.mod		go.mod
go.sum		go.sum
install.sh		install.sh
semver.yaml		semver.yaml

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✨ Features

🔄 Comparison with Other Tools

📦 Installation

Homebrew (macOS)

Quick Install

Manual Download

Build from Source

Verifying Release Signatures

🚀 Quick Start

Keyboard Controls

📖 Configuration

Basic Structure

Forward Options

Resource Formats

Health Check Configuration

mDNS Hostnames

Usage

Interactive Mode

Verbose Mode

Headless Mode

Validate Configuration

Custom Config File

Generate Forwards from a Cluster

Status Indicators

Advanced Features

HTTP Traffic Logging

Connection Benchmarking

Hot-Reload

Port Conflict Detection

Retry Strategy

Migration from kftray

Signal Handling

🐛 Troubleshooting

Port Already in Use

Connection Refused

Context Not Found

🔧 Development

Prerequisites

Build

Contributing

Telemetry

License

Acknowledgments

Links

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