Kubernetes REST API

Question

Does kubernetes accessible via a REST API? I was looking over at the Kubernetes API page and it all looks very cryptic / incomplete. They talk about new versions but have not disclosed the API usage or docs anywhere. I just wanted to know if there is a way to access the cluster information in any other way other than using the kubectl command.

Example usage:

What I do now:

kubectl get pod --context='my-prod-cluster'

What I'd like to do:

curl GET /some/parameters/to/get/info

Answer 1

You can see all the API calls kubectl is making by passing --v=8 to any kubectl command

Answer 2

The API is available to you outside of kubectl. In fact, my understanding is that underneath it all kubectl is just making REST calls to the API server. In a cluster using TLS certificates for authentication, a curl call to list your pods might look something like this (you can get your apiserver location/port with kubectl cluster-info | grep 'Kubernetes master'):

curl --cert myuser.pem --key myuser-key.pem --cacert /path/to/ca.pem https://my-prod-cluster-apiserver:6443/api/v1/pods

This doc shows how to use kubectl proxy to allow you to explore the Swagger-generated API docs on your own cluster.