Open source · LGPL-3.0 · local-first
A desktop app for your
Kubernetes clusters.
Create local clusters, browse resources, apply manifests and forward ports from one native app. Free and open source, with sandboxed plugins.
Windows 10+ · Linux (AppImage · deb)
Beta 0.9.0 ships on 2 November 2026. Until then the download button opens the releases page, where the release candidates are.
See it before you install it.
Everything you need for local Kubernetes work.
A single native desktop app. No browser tabs and no half-finished web dashboards.
Local clusters
Create and delete local clusters with kind or k3d. Switch between every context in your kubeconfig from a dropdown.
Resource browser
Browse Pods, Deployments, Services, ConfigMaps and more in any namespace. Inspect YAML, restart rollouts, scale and delete.
Logs and terminal
Follow container logs live, run commands inside a pod, and use kubectl and other command-line tools from the built-in terminal.
Port forwarding
Forward a service or pod to localhost in one click and manage every active forward from a single panel.
Manifest library
Write and organise YAML manifests in folders, start from templates, and apply them to the active cluster in one click.
Compose migration
Turn a Docker Compose file into Kubernetes manifests with kompose. They land in your manifest library, ready to review and apply.
Your clusters, your machine, nothing else.
No account, no login and no telemetry. Apart from the update check against GitHub Releases, Shoal only talks to your clusters
Reads your kubeconfig from ~/.kube/config or a path you choose, and remembers it
Errors go to a local log that you can open from Settings
The Windows installer and the AppImage keep themselves up to date
Native desktop. Sandboxed plugins. No account, no telemetry.
Main process
Electron main runs the app lifecycle and brokers every OS call, from docker to kubectl and kind, through a typed IPC bridge.
Renderer UI
A sandboxed React 19 app built with Vite, Tailwind v4 and React Router. No Node APIs and no file system access.
Plugin runtime
Plugin UI runs in a sandboxed frame with only the permissions its manifest declares. Installed plugins run their Node code in a separate process. The bundled examples are signed.
From download to cluster in three steps.
STEP 01
Install
Download the Windows installer or the Linux AppImage from GitHub Releases and run it.
STEP 02
Connect or create
Shoal reads your kubeconfig, or creates a local cluster with kind or k3d.
STEP 03
Extend
Two example plugins come enabled. Build your own with the plugin guide.
Read the plugin guide
Get the beta.
Version 0.9.0 is a public beta for 64-bit Windows and Linux. macOS, the plugin marketplace and code-signed installers are planned for 1.0.
Windows 10 and 11
Installer with automatic updates
Portable .exe that needs no install and does not update itself
Linux
AppImage with automatic updates, needs libfuse2
.deb package for Debian and Ubuntu, recommended on Ubuntu 24.04, no automatic updates
The installers are not code signed yet. Windows SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC". Choose More info, then Run anyway.
You need kubectl on your PATH. Creating local clusters needs kind or k3d plus Docker, and the Compose migration needs kompose. On Linux the AppImage needs libfuse2 (libfuse2t64 on Ubuntu 24.04), the .deb does not.
See the releases
© 2026 Daniel Galván Cancio and the Shoal contributors · LGPL-3.0-or-later
Kubernetes is a registered trademark of The Linux Foundation. Shoal is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Linux Foundation or the Cloud Native Computing Foundation.