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using-custom-indexes.md

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title Using Custom Plugin Indexes
slug custom-indexes
weight 800

Plugin indexes contain plugin manifests, which are documents that describe the installation procedure for a plugin. For discovery purposes, Krew comes with a default plugin index, plugins hosted in the krew-index repository.

However, some plugin authors may choose to host their own indexes that contain their curation of kubectl plugins. These are called "custom plugin indexes".

If you need to serve your plugin archive behind authentication, see [this page]({{< ref "serving-plugins-privately.md" >}}).

Adding a custom index

A custom plugin index can be added with the kubectl krew index add command:

{{<prompt>}}kubectl krew index add foo https://github.com/foo/custom-index.git

The URI you use can be any git remote (e.g., git@github.com:foo/custom-index.git).

Removing a custom index

You can remove a custom plugin index by passing the name it was added with to the index remove command:

{{<prompt>}}kubectl krew index remove foo

Listing indexes

To see what indexes you have added run the index list command:

{{<prompt>}}kubectl krew index list
{{<output>}}INDEX    URL
default  https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/krew-index.git
foo      https://github.com/foo/custom-index.git{{</output>}}

Installing plugins from custom indexes

Commands for managing plugins (e.g. install, upgrade) work with custom indexes as well.

By default, Krew prefixes plugins with a default/ prefix. So, to install a plugin from a custom index, you need to specify it in the format INDEX_NAME/PLUGIN_NAME.

For example, to install a plugin named bar from custom index foo:

{{<prompt>}}kubectl krew install foo/bar

Similarly:

  • To list all plugins (including the ones from custom indexes), run:

    {{<prompt>}}kubectl krew search

  • To remove a plugin, you don't need to specify its index:

    {{<prompt>}}kubectl krew uninstall PLUGIN_NAME

  • To get information about a plugin from a custom index:

    {{<prompt>}}kubectl krew info INDEX_NAME/PLUGIN_NAME

Note: If two indexes each include a plugin with the same name, only one can be installed at any time.

The default index

When you don't include an explicit INDEX_NAME prefix in your Krew command, the command will refer to a plugin from the default index. The INDEX_NAME prefix is used to differentiate plugins with the same name across different indexes.

Krew ships with krew-index as the default index, but this can be removed using the kubectl krew index remove default command. Once it is removed, you can add another index with the name default and plugins from it will not require the INDEX_NAME prefix in commands.