Workflow Setup Kubectl

In this guide, we’ll enhance our Solar System GitHub Actions workflow by installing the kubectl CLI on the runner. We’ll introduce a new job—dev-deploy—which deploys our application to the development Kubernetes namespace. This job will:

1. Check out the code
2. Install kubectl
3. Validate cluster connectivity by fetching version and node details

Existing Workflow Overview

Below is the current workflow up to the docker job. It runs on pushes to the main branch or any feature/* branch, and it uses MongoDB credentials stored in GitHub Secrets and Variables.

name: Solar System Workflow

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
      - 'feature/*'

env:
  MONGO_URI: mongodb+srv://supercluster.d3jj.mongodb.net/superData
  MONGO_USERNAME: ${{ vars.MONGO_USERNAME }}
  MONGO_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.MONGO_PASSWORD }}

jobs:
  unit-testing:
    # …
  code-coverage:
    # …
  docker:
    name: Containerization
    needs: [unit-testing, code-coverage]
    permissions:
      packages: write
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Docker Hub Login
        uses: docker/[email protected]
        with:
          username: ${{ vars.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}
          password: ${{ secrets.DOCKERHUB_PASSWORD }}

      - name: GHCR Login
        uses: docker/[email protected]
        with:
          registry: ghcr.io
          username: ${{ github.repository_owner }}
          password: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

      - name: Docker Build & Push
        uses: docker/build-push-action@v4
        with:
          context: .
          push: true
          tags: |
            ${{ vars.DOCKERHUB_USERNAME }}/solar-system:${{ github.sha }}
            ghcr.io/${{ github.repository_owner }}/solar-system:${{ github.sha }}

Job Summary

Adding the dev-deploy Job

Append the following job after docker to install kubectl and fetch cluster details:

  dev-deploy:
    name: Deploy to Development Cluster
    needs: docker
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repo
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install kubectl CLI
        uses: azure/setup-kubectl@v3
        with:
          version: 'v1.26.0'

      - name: Fetch Kubernetes Cluster Details
        run: |
          kubectl version --short
          echo "------------------------------"
          kubectl get nodes

You can find the azure/setup-kubectl action in the GitHub Marketplace:

After committing with the message “Installing kubectl,” your workflow will trigger a new run:

You can then view the real-time progress of each step:

Troubleshooting: Kubeconfig Required

If you see an error like this, it means kubectl has no cluster context:

kubectl version --short
Client Version: v1.26.0
Error from server (Unauthorized): the server is currently unable to handle the request

A typical kubeconfig looks like this:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Config
preferences: {}
clusters:
- cluster:
    certificate-authority-data: <base64-encoded-ca>
    server: https://example.k8s.cluster:6443
  name: my-cluster
contexts:
- context:
    cluster: my-cluster
    namespace: default
    user: my-cluster-admin
  name: my-cluster-context
current-context: my-cluster-context
users:
- name: my-cluster-admin
  user:
    client-certificate-data: <base64-encoded-cert>
    client-key-data: <base64-encoded-key>

Using the Kubeconfig in Your Workflow

1. Add the Kubeconfig as a secret, e.g., KUBECONFIG_DATA.
2. Inject it into the runner and write it to ~/.kube/config:

      - name: Configure Kubeconfig
        run: |
          mkdir -p ~/.kube
          echo "${{ secrets.KUBECONFIG_DATA }}" | base64 --decode > ~/.kube/config

With this step in place, your dev-deploy job will authenticate successfully and you’ll see both version and node information printed.

Links and References

• GitHub Actions: Workflow Syntax
• azure/setup-kubectl Action
• Kubernetes Configuration Docs
• GitHub Secrets