kubectl-ditto

A kubectl plugin that generates YAML for any Kubernetes resource or CRD using the cluster's OpenAPI schema and smart defaults.

Features

• Any resource — works with built-in resources and any installed CRD
• Dynamic short names — queries the API server directly, no hardcoded aliases
• OpenAPI v3 + v2 — tries v3 first (better oneOf/anyOf support), falls back to v2
• Schema comments — field descriptions from the OpenAPI spec are emitted as YAML comments
• Interactive mode — prompts for required field values with type-aware inputs (selects for enums, booleans, key=value for maps)
• Smart defaults — enum first values, format-aware placeholders, commonly-needed fields included by default

Usage

# Generate a Deployment
kubectl ditto deployment -n my-namespace my-app

# Generate a CRD resource
kubectl ditto certificates.cert-manager.io -n my-namespace my-cert

# Interactive mode — prompts for values
kubectl ditto deployment -n my-namespace my-app -i

# Minimal output (required fields only)
kubectl ditto deployment -n my-namespace my-app --minimal

# Full output (all fields with defaults)
kubectl ditto deployment -n my-namespace my-app --full

# Suppress description comments
kubectl ditto deployment -n my-namespace my-app --no-comments

Install

From source

cargo install --path .

Via Krew

kubectl krew install ditto

The binary kubectl-ditto is placed on your PATH. kubectl automatically discovers plugins named kubectl-<subcommand>.

How it works

1. Discovery — queries /api/v1 and /apis to resolve your input against all resources in the cluster, including dynamic short names from the API server (no hardcoded list)
2. Schema — fetches the OpenAPI v3 spec (per group/version from /openapi/v3), falling back to v2 (/openapi/v2) for older clusters. Resolves $ref pointers and parses oneOf/anyOf variants
3. Generate — walks the structured schema to produce YAML with:
   • Field descriptions as inline # comments
   • Smart type-aware defaults
   • --minimal for required-only, --full for everything
   • --interactive for prompted input with enum selects, boolean confirms, and map entry

Requirements

• A running Kubernetes cluster (uses your current kubeconfig context)
• CRDs must be installed for custom resources

Release

To publish a new version:

1. Tag: git tag v0.2.0 && git push --tags
2. Build release binaries for each platform
3. Update Krew manifest hashes: ./deploy/krew/update-sha256.sh v0.2.0
4. Submit PR to krew-index