Before you start with Syself Autopilot, you should install the necessary tools to interact with Kubernetes clusters. This section provides instruction on how to install `kubectl` and `kubelogin`. Make sure you have these tools installed before proceeding to the next sections.

## Install `kubectl`

Use `kubectl` to deploy and manage applications, view logs, and control your cluster from the command line. You'll need it for creating your workload cluster.

You can install `kubectl` using your distribution native package management, or directly downloading the release:

<Tabs id="operating-systems" items={['Linux', 'macOS', 'Windows']}>

<TabItem value="Linux">

```console title="x86-64"
$ curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"
$ sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
```

```console title="ARM64"
$ curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/arm64/kubectl"
$ sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
```

<Callout type="note">

If you do not have root access on the target system, you can still install kubectl to the ~/.local/bin directory:

```console
$ chmod +x kubectl
$ mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
$ mv ./kubectl ~/.local/bin/kubectl
# and then append (or prepend) ~/.local/bin to $PATH
```

</Callout>

</TabItem>

<TabItem value="macOS">

```console title="Intel"
$ curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/amd64/kubectl"
$ chmod +x ./kubectl
$ sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
$ sudo chown root: /usr/local/bin/kubectl
```

```console title="Apple Silicon"
$ curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl"
$ chmod +x ./kubectl
$ sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
$ sudo chown root: /usr/local/bin/kubectl
```

</TabItem>

<TabItem value="Windows">

We recommend installing `kubectl` via [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/). If you don't have Chocolatey yet, install it first from an **Administrator** PowerShell:

```powershell
Set-ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Scope Process -Force; [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [System.Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol -bor 3072; iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://community.chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))
```

Then install `kubectl` (also from an Administrator PowerShell):

```console title="Windows"
$ choco install kubernetes-cli
```

</TabItem>

</Tabs>

If you want to know more, refer to the official [Kubernetes documentation](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/#kubectl).

## Install and configure kubelogin

We use [_kubelogin_](https://github.com/int128/kubelogin) to access the management cluster. It is a plugin designed for Kubernetes OpenID Connect (OIDC) authentication.

<Tabs id="package-managers" items={['Linux / macOS', 'Windows']}>

<TabItem value="Linux / macOS">

We recommend installing `kubelogin` via `Krew`, the plugin manager for `kubectl`.

<Steps>
<Step>Make sure git is installed</Step>
<Step>Download and install krew</Step>

```bash
(
  set -x; cd "$(mktemp -d)" &&
  OS="$(uname | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]')" &&
  ARCH="$(uname -m | sed -e 's/x86_64/amd64/' -e 's/\(arm\)\(64\)\?.*/\1\2/' -e 's/aarch64$/arm64/')" &&
  KREW="krew-${OS}_${ARCH}" &&
  curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/krew/releases/latest/download/${KREW}.tar.gz" &&
  tar zxvf "${KREW}.tar.gz" &&
  ./"${KREW}" install krew
)
```

<Step>Add krew to your PATH</Step>

Update your `.bashrc` or `.zshrc` and append this line:

```bash
export PATH="${KREW_ROOT:-$HOME/.krew}/bin:$PATH"
```

Then restart your shell.

<Step>Check the installation</Step>

Run `kubectl krew`.

<Step>Install kubelogin</Step>

```console
$ kubectl krew install oidc-login
```

</Steps>

> [!WARNING]
> If you just ran `export PATH="${KREW_ROOT:-$HOME/.krew}/bin:$PATH"` instead of adding it to your shell's configuration, you will have to do it every time you open a new terminal session.

</TabItem>

<TabItem value="Windows">

We recommend installing `kubelogin` via [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/):

```console title="Windows"
# Run as Administrator
$ choco install kubelogin
```

</TabItem>

</Tabs>

Alternatively, you can install `kubelogin` via a [Github release](https://github.com/int128/kubelogin/releases). Then make sure it is on your path as `kubectl-oidc_login`.