Dev Container for Kubernetes

A concise guide for configuring a Dev Container with kubectl to manage a local or remote Kubernetes / K3s cluster directly from VS Code.

Note: This setup was created and tested on an ARM-based architecture (e.g., Apple Silicon / Raspberry Pi).

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1. Prepare the setup

1. Create a new project folder and open it in VS Code.
2. Inside that folder, create a directory named .devcontainer.
3. Within .devcontainer, create a file called devcontainer.json.

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2. Add the configuration

Copy the following content into your devcontainer.json file:

{
  "name": "K3s Dev",
  "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/devcontainers/base:ubuntu",
  "postCreateCommand": "curl -LO https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/arm64/kubectl && curl -LO https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/arm64/kubectl.sha256 && sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl && mkdir -p ~/.kube && touch ~/.kube/config && chmod 600 ~/.kube/config"
}

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3. Launch the Dev Container

Before running, make sure you have the Dev Containers extension from Microsoft installed.

Click the blue >< icon in the bottom-left corner of VS Code,
then select “Reopen in Dev Container”.

This will build and open your project inside a ready-to-use container environment.

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4. Retrieve your cluster configuration

On your control-plane node, run the following command to display your cluster configuration:

sudo cat /etc/rancher/k3s/k3s.yaml

The output should look like this:

parts of my cluster are covered for security purposes. you should not share it with other people.

Copy the entire output and save it temporarily to a text file.

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5. Edit the kubeconfig inside the container

Inside the Dev Container, open the config file:

nano ~/.kube/config

Paste the content you copied earlier into this file.

Locate the line that looks like this:

server: https://127.0.0.1:6443

Replace the IP address with the actual IP of your control-plane node.
You can find it using:

ifconfig

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6. Verify the setup

Run the following command to confirm that kubectl is connected to your cluster:

kubectl get nodes

If you see your cluster nodes listed — everything is configured correctly.