---
name: "kubectl-auth-can-i"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "kubectl"
version: "1.37.2-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/kubectl-auth-can-i"
---

# kubectl-auth-can-i(1)

Check whether an action is allowed

Eric Paris Jan 2015

## NAME

kubectl auth can-i - Check whether an action is allowed

## SYNOPSIS

**kubectl auth can-i** \[OPTIONS\]

## DESCRIPTION

Check whether an action is allowed.

VERB is a logical Kubernetes API verb like 'get', 'list', 'watch', 'delete', etc. TYPE is a Kubernetes resource. Shortcuts and groups will be resolved. NONRESOURCEURL is a partial URL that starts with "/". NAME is the name of a particular Kubernetes resource. This command pairs nicely with impersonation. See --as global flag.

## OPTIONS

**-A**, **--all-namespaces**=false\
 	If true, check the specified action in all namespaces.

**--list**=false\
 	If true, prints all allowed actions.

**--no-headers**=false\
 	If true, prints allowed actions without headers

**-q**, **--quiet**=false\
 	If true, suppress output and just return the exit code.

**--subresource**=""\
 	SubResource such as pod/log or deployment/scale

## OPTIONS INHERITED FROM PARENT COMMANDS

**--as**=""\
 	Username to impersonate for the operation. User could be a regular user or a service account in a namespace.

**--as-group**=\[\]\
 	Group to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple groups.

**--as-uid**=""\
 	UID to impersonate for the operation.

**--as-user-extra**=\[\]\
 	User extras to impersonate for the operation, this flag can be repeated to specify multiple values for the same key.

**--cache-dir**="/home/username/.kube/cache"\
 	Default cache directory

**--certificate-authority**=""\
 	Path to a cert file for the certificate authority

**--client-certificate**=""\
 	Path to a client certificate file for TLS

**--client-key**=""\
 	Path to a client key file for TLS

**--cluster**=""\
 	The name of the kubeconfig cluster to use

**--context**=""\
 	The name of the kubeconfig context to use

**--disable-compression**=false\
 	If true, opt-out of response compression for all requests to the server

**--insecure-skip-tls-verify**=false\
 	If true, the server's certificate will not be checked for validity. This will make your HTTPS connections insecure

**--kubeconfig**=""\
 	Path to the kubeconfig file to use for CLI requests.

**--kuberc**=""\
 	Path to the kuberc file to use for preferences. This can be disabled by exporting KUBECTL\_KUBERC=false feature gate or turning off the feature KUBERC=off.

**--match-server-version**=false\
 	Require server version to match client version

**-n**, **--namespace**=""\
 	If present, the namespace scope for this CLI request

**--password**=""\
 	Password for basic authentication to the API server

**--profile**="none"\
 	Name of profile to capture. One of (none\|cpu\|heap\|goroutine\|threadcreate\|block\|mutex\|trace)

**--profile-output**="profile.pprof"\
 	Name of the file to write the profile to

**--proxy-url**=""\
 	Proxy URL to use for requests to the API server

**--request-timeout**="0"\
 	The length of time to wait before giving up on a single server request. Non-zero values should contain a corresponding time unit (e.g. 1s, 2m, 3h). A value of zero means don't timeout requests.

**-s**, **--server**=""\
 	The address and port of the Kubernetes API server

**--tls-server-name**=""\
 	Server name to use for server certificate validation. If it is not provided, the hostname used to contact the server is used

**--token**=""\
 	Bearer token for authentication to the API server

**--user**=""\
 	The name of the kubeconfig user to use

**--username**=""\
 	Username for basic authentication to the API server

**--version**=false\
 	\--version, --version=raw prints version information and quits; --version=vX.Y.Z... sets the reported version

**--warnings-as-errors**=false\
 	Treat warnings received from the server as errors and exit with a non-zero exit code

## EXAMPLE

```
  # Check to see if I can create pods in any namespace
  kubectl auth can-i create pods --all-namespaces
  # Check to see if I can list deployments in my current namespace
  kubectl auth can-i list deployments.apps
  # Check to see if service account "foo" of namespace "dev" can list pods in the namespace "prod"
  # You must be allowed to use impersonation for the global option "--as"
  kubectl auth can-i list pods --as=system:serviceaccount:dev:foo -n prod
  # Check to see if I can do everything in my current namespace ("*" means all)
  kubectl auth can-i '*' '*'
  # Check to see if I can get the job named "bar" in namespace "foo"
  kubectl auth can-i list jobs.batch/bar -n foo
  # Check to see if I can read pod logs
  kubectl auth can-i get pods --subresource=log
  # Check to see if I can access the URL /logs/
  kubectl auth can-i get /logs/
  # Check to see if I can approve certificates.k8s.io
  kubectl auth can-i approve certificates.k8s.io
  # List all allowed actions in namespace "foo"
  kubectl auth can-i --list --namespace=foo
```

## SEE ALSO

**[kubectl-auth(1)](/kubectl-auth/1.md)**,

## HISTORY

January 2015, Originally compiled by Eric Paris (eparis at redhat dot com) based on the kubernetes source material, but hopefully they have been automatically generated since!