Skip to main content

Desktop App

Headlamp can be run as a desktop application for users who do not want to deploy it in-cluster or those who want to manage unrelated clusters locally.

There are desktop apps for Linux, Mac, and Windows.

Please check the following guides for the installation in your desired platform.

Use a non-default kube config file​

If you wish to use a non-default kubeconfig file, then you can do it by providing it as an argument to Headlamp, e.g.:

/path/to/headlamp /my/different/kubeconfig

or by using an environment variable:

KUBECONFIG=/my/different/kubeconfig /path/to/headlamp

Use several kube config files​

If you need to use more than one kubeconfig file at the same time, you can list each config file path with a separator.

KUBECONFIG=kubeconfig1:kubeconfig2:kubeconfig3 /path/to/headlamp

Access using OIDC​

OIDC has a useful feature for running Headlamp in a cluster. It allows cluster operators to just give users a URL that they can use to log in and access Headlamp. If your kubeconfig is set to use OIDC for authentication (you have already authenticated and produced a kubeconfig), Headlamp will read those settings. It will then try to use them to offer effortless login to the cluster.

Still, the kube config OIDC settings will not provide a OIDC callback URL. Make sure that your OIDC configuration for your cluster includes Headlamp's OIDC callback in its redirect URIs. I.e., say you're using Dex for the OIDC connection and you have it already configured in your kubeconfig. Then, be sure to add the /oidc-callback endpoint with Headlamp's local address to Dex's staticClient.redirectURIs: http://localhost:6644/oidc-callback.