---
name: "kubectl-explain"
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-explain"
---

# kubectl-explain(1)

Get documentation for a resource

Eric Paris Jan 2015

## NAME

kubectl explain - Get documentation for a resource

## SYNOPSIS

**kubectl explain** \[OPTIONS\]

## DESCRIPTION

Describe fields and structure of various resources.

This command describes the fields associated with each supported API resource. Fields are identified via a simple JSONPath identifier:

```
    TYPE.FIELDNAME[.FIELDNAME]
```

Information about each field is retrieved from the server in OpenAPI format.

Use "kubectl api-resources" for a complete list of supported resources.

## OPTIONS

**--api-version**=""\
 	Get different explanations for particular API version (API group/version)

**--max-depth**=0\
 	Maximum recursion depth when printing nested fields with --recursive. 0 means no limit. Requires --recursive when greater than 0.

**-o**, **--output**="plaintext"\
 	Format in which to render the schema (plaintext, plaintext-openapiv2)

**-R**, **--recursive**=false\
 	Print the fields of fields. Use --max-depth to cap the recursion depth.

## 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

```
  # Get the documentation of the resource and its fields
  kubectl explain pods
  # Get all the fields in the resource
  kubectl explain pods --recursive
  # Get fields in the resource up to a specific recursive depth
  kubectl explain pods --recursive --max-depth=2
  # Get the explanation for deployment in supported api versions
  kubectl explain deployments --api-version=apps/v1
  # Get the documentation of a specific field of a resource
  kubectl explain pods.spec.containers
  # Get the documentation of resources in different format
  kubectl explain deployment --output=plaintext-openapiv2
```

## SEE ALSO

**[kubectl(1)](/kubectl/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!