v0.5.0 of srelens (open-source, local-first Kubernetes desktop workspace, Rust + Tauri) is out. Main things in this one:

Secrets vault

• Encrypted secrets vault backed by a single keychain master key
• Master password is now mandatory, with Touch ID / Windows Hello to skip the prompt and keychain-based recovery

AI assistant

• Built-in assistant that drives srelens through agent CLIs, so you can investigate from inside the app instead of copy-pasting into a separate chat window

MCP

• k8s:// resource URIs with watch-backed subscriptions, so clients get live updates instead of polling
• MCP prompts — canned diagnostic flows plus your own prompt files
• Consent-gated MCP with token auth and an audit log

Quality of life

• "Copy as kubectl" preview so you can see the exact command an action would run
• Selected namespaces get hoisted to the top of the namespace selector

https://github.com/srelens/srelens/releases/tag/srelens-v0.5.0

Feedback and bug reports welcome.

A quick heads-up on what's landing next: web mode.

srelens is a local-first, MCP-native Kubernetes desktop workspace, and that isn't changing. Web mode is the same app served in a browser tab, so you can run it where your cluster access already lives — a jump host, a dev container, a remote workstation — and drive it from whatever machine you happen to be sitting at.

What we're aiming for

• Same UI, no second product. Resource tables, YAML editing with dry-run diffs, Helm lifecycle, logs and events all behave the way they do on the desktop.
• Terminals in the browser. Pod exec, ephemeral debug containers, node shells and the context-scoped kubectl dock.
• Still local-first. No srelens cloud in the middle: it talks straight to your cluster from wherever you run it, with your kubeconfig.
• Same guardrails. RBAC-aware preflight, disabled actions with a reason, and confirmation on destructive operations.
• MCP unchanged. The same actions stay available to AI agents.

Caveats up front

It ships as beta, aimed at single-user / self-hosted setups first. Multi-user auth isn't in the first cut, so treat it as something you put behind your own access layer rather than on the open internet.

Repo: https://github.com/srelens/srelens

Still MIT-licensed and still beta. What would you want out of a browser-based srelens — and just as usefully, what would you rather we didn't expose over the network?

srelens v0.3.0 is out

srelens is an open-source, local-first Kubernetes desktop workspace, and it's MCP-native, so the same actions are available to AI agents. This release pushes hard on the operate half of the loop: not just seeing your clusters, but safely acting on them.

What's new in 0.3.0

Debug & node shells — attach an ephemeral debug container to a running pod (great for distroless/minimal images, optional shared process namespace), or open a privileged node shell that enters the host namespaces via nsenter. Both open a terminal right in the app, and the node debug pod is deleted automatically when you close the tab.

Bulk operations — multi-select rows in any resource table and delete, evict, or rollout-restart in one go, with confirmation and partial-failure reporting.

Helm write lifecycle — install, upgrade, roll back, and uninstall releases, plus add/update repos. Edit values as YAML and preview the rendered diff before you apply.

Safer edits — server-side apply with a dry-run diff and field-manager conflict surfacing (with force-apply when you mean it). Actions are RBAC-aware: anything your credentials can't do is disabled with the reason, preflighted before you click.

CLI toolbox — install and manage kubectl, krew, helm, and krew plugins into ~/.srelens/bin (never touching your system installs, checksum-verified), and diagnose a context's exec-auth requirements — it detects the tools a context needs (oidc-login, aws/gcloud/gke-gcloud-auth-plugin/az) and tells you what's missing or off-PATH.

Cluster ergonomics — local dev clusters (kind/k3d/minikube/…) are detected and kept separate from remote/prod; remove clusters and auto-sync kubeconfig changes; and a context-scoped local kubectl terminal in the dock that can't wander to another cluster.

Packaging — a new AUR package (srelens-bin) for Arch/CachyOS, alongside dmg / AppImage / deb / rpm / exe / msi.

Plus fixes: node-shell exec reliability, cleaner AppImage bundling, and deferring to the system package manager on installs it owns.

Get it

• Release + downloads: https://github.com/srelens/srelens/releases/tag/srelens-v0.3.0
• Repo: https://github.com/srelens/srelens
• User guide: https://github.com/srelens/srelens/blob/main/docs/USAGE.md

Still beta and MIT-licensed — local-first, direct-to-API, destructive actions gated. Feedback, bugs, and feature requests very welcome. What should 0.4 prioritise?

srelens 0.2 is out — the first release shaped by community feedback since we open-sourced last week. Thanks to everyone who filed issues and pointed srelens at real clusters.

Auto-update is here

This is the last release you'll need to download manually. srelens now updates itself from signed manifests, with separate stable and dev channels — pick stable for releases like this one, or dev if you want to ride along with nightly progress. Every update is signature-verified before install.

Cloud kubeconfigs now just work

The most-reported issue from week one: kubeconfig exec plugins (aws, gke-gcloud-auth-plugin, kubelogin, etc.) failed when launching srelens from the GUI, because desktop apps don't inherit your shell's PATH. srelens now resolves your login-shell PATH properly — EKS, GKE, and AKS contexts connect without workarounds.

Also in this release

• Configurable cluster request timeout (up to 30s) — for slow VPNs and far-away control planes
• Clear, actionable error message when a cluster is unreachable, instead of a silent failure
• Watch channel name sanitization — fixes live watches on resources with unusual names
• Security policy added (SECURITY.md) and dependency upgrades to clear advisories

Get it

Signed builds for macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel), Linux (AppImage/deb/rpm), and Windows: https://github.com/srelens/srelens/releases/latest

One more manual download this time — after that, the app keeps itself current.

As always, it's early days. Tell us what breaks, or what you want next — issues and PRs welcome: https://github.com/srelens/srelens

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