The Kubernetes provider selects a target cluster based on information in a `kubeconfig` file, which contains one or more context settings. If these options are not explicitly specified in a Pulumi stack, the provider will attempt to load ambient configuration similarly to most Kubernetes CLI tooling. While this behavior makes it easier to get started quickly, it is not always desirable in production stacks.

In "strict mode", the default Kubernetes provider is disabled, and the `kubeconfig` and `context` settings are required for Provider configuration. These settings unambiguously ensure that every Kubernetes resource is associated with a particular cluster.

These options are already available individually, but "strict mode" makes it more convenient to enforce across a project or stack.