Installation

The kobe CLI is a self-contained binary. It connects to a kobe operator endpoint — the operator itself runs in your Kubernetes cluster.

Install the CLI

All release binaries are signed (macOS codesigned + notarized, Windows code-signed, Linux/apt PGP-signed via GCP-KMS).

mise downloads the pre-built binary from GitHub releases and pins the version per project or globally.

# install globally
mise use -g github:kunobi-ninja/kobe@latest

To pin a version in your project so every contributor gets the same binary:

[tools]
"github:kunobi-ninja/kobe" = "latest"

Running mise install in the project root will install the pinned version.

macOS and Linux, via the Kunobi tap:

brew install kunobi-ninja/kunobi/kobe

Pre-release (RC/beta) builds are published as a separate formula:

brew install kunobi-ninja/kunobi/kobe-unstable

Add the signed Kunobi apt repository (served from Cloudflare R2) and install. The published gpg.key is an ASCII-armored OpenPGP cert, so it must be dearmored into the binary keyring apt expects:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://r2.kunobi.com/kobe/apt/gpg.key \
  | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/kobe.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/kobe.gpg] https://r2.kunobi.com/kobe/apt stable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kobe.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install kobe

Use the unstable suite instead of stable for pre-release builds.

winget install kunobi-ninja.kobe

Pre-release builds: winget install kunobi-ninja.kobe.Unstable.

The CLI is published to crates.io as kobectl (the crate name kobe was taken; the installed binary is still kobe).

# download a pre-built binary (no compile) via cargo-binstall
cargo binstall kobectl

# or compile from crates.io
cargo install kobectl

Run without installing, or add to a profile:

nix run github:kunobi-ninja/kobe -- --help
nix profile install github:kunobi-ninja/kobe

cargo install --git https://github.com/kunobi-ninja/kobe --bin kobe

This compiles the CLI only. Rust 1.85 or later is required.

Verify the installation

kobe --help

You should see the list of available subcommands. If the command isn't found, make sure the binary is on your PATH.

Deploy the operator

The kobe-operator binary runs in your host Kubernetes cluster. Refer to the Helm chart or Flux deployment in the kobe repository for production setup. The operator requires:

A host Kubernetes cluster (k3s, k0s, EKS, GKE, or any conformant cluster)
Permission to manage ClusterPool, ClusterLease, ClusterInstance, AccessPolicy, and KobeStore CRDs
Network access between the operator and a kobe endpoint your clients can reach

Install the CRDs:

cargo run --bin crdgen -- all | kubectl apply -f -

Or apply them from the Helm chart, which bundles the generated CRD manifests.

Installation

Install the CLI

Verify the installation

Deploy the operator

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