> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.infraudit.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Register Kubernetes clusters and scan your workloads

> Connect Kubernetes clusters to InfraAudit, browse deployments and pods, and run drift detection and vulnerability scans against your workloads.

InfraAudit treats Kubernetes clusters as a first-class provider type alongside AWS, GCP, and Azure. Connect a cluster to browse deployments, pods, services, and namespaces — and run drift detection and vulnerability scanning against your Kubernetes workloads.

## Connecting a cluster

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Cloud Providers">
    In the sidebar, click **Cloud Providers**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Choose Kubernetes">
    Click **Connect provider → Kubernetes**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Upload your kubeconfig">
    Upload a kubeconfig file or paste its contents into the form. Give the cluster a display name.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Connect">
    Click **Connect**. InfraAudit reads the active context in the kubeconfig and connects to that cluster.
  </Step>
</Steps>

If you have multiple clusters to register, connect each one separately.

**Minimum RBAC permissions:**

```yaml theme={null}
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: ClusterRole
metadata:
  name: infraudit-reader
rules:
  - apiGroups: ["", "apps", "batch"]
    resources:
      - deployments
      - pods
      - services
      - namespaces
      - replicasets
      - daemonsets
      - statefulsets
      - jobs
      - cronjobs
    verbs: ["get", "list", "watch"]
```

The service account or user in the kubeconfig should be read-only.

Via CLI:

```bash theme={null}
infraudit kubernetes register --kubeconfig ~/.kube/config --name production
```

## What InfraAudit collects

After connecting a cluster, InfraAudit syncs the following workload data:

| View            | What's shown                                                   |
| --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Clusters**    | All registered clusters with health status and resource counts |
| **Namespaces**  | Namespaces per cluster with pod counts                         |
| **Deployments** | Deployments across all clusters with replica status            |
| **Pods**        | Individual pods with status, namespace, and node assignment    |
| **Services**    | ClusterIP, NodePort, and LoadBalancer services                 |

All Kubernetes resources appear in the main [Resources and inventory](/platform/resources-and-inventory) view alongside your cloud resources, and can be filtered by cluster.

## Drift detection for Kubernetes

InfraAudit detects two types of Kubernetes drift:

**Baseline snapshots** — InfraAudit captures a baseline of your workloads on first sync. Subsequent scans flag configuration changes including:

* Image tag changes (e.g. `nginx:1.24` → `nginx:latest`)
* Replica count changes made outside of a deployment rollout
* Resource limits removed or modified
* Environment variables added or changed

**Manifest uploads** — upload a Kubernetes YAML manifest via **IaC** in the sidebar. InfraAudit parses it and compares the declared configuration against the live cluster state to detect IaC drift.

## Vulnerability scanning for Kubernetes

For Kubernetes workloads, Trivy scans the container images referenced in your pods and deployments. Trigger a scan:

```bash theme={null}
infraudit vuln scan --provider <kubernetes-cluster-id>
```

Or configure the scheduled `vulnerability_scan` job under **Jobs** to run against your Kubernetes providers automatically.

## Multi-cluster management

InfraAudit shows a unified view across all registered clusters. Use the **Cluster** dropdown at the top of any workload view to filter by cluster.

## CLI reference

```bash theme={null}
# List registered clusters
infraudit kubernetes clusters

# List namespaces for a cluster
infraudit kubernetes namespaces --cluster <cluster-id>

# List deployments
infraudit kubernetes deployments --cluster <cluster-id>

# List pods in a specific namespace
infraudit kubernetes pods --cluster <cluster-id> --namespace production

# List services
infraudit kubernetes services --cluster <cluster-id>
```

## Next steps

* [Drift detection](/platform/drift-detection) — run drift scans against your Kubernetes workloads
* [Vulnerabilities](/platform/vulnerabilities) — review CVE findings for your container images
* [Connecting cloud accounts](/platform/connecting-cloud-accounts) — detailed RBAC and credential requirements