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Getting Started#

Lens is lightweight and simple to install. You'll be up and running in just a few minutes.

System Requirements#

Review the System Requirements to check if your computer configuration is supported.

macOS#

  1. Download Lens for macOS.
  2. Open the browser's download list and locate the downloaded archive.
  3. Select the 'magnifying glass' icon to open the archive in Finder.
  4. Double-click Lens-{version}.dmg and drag Lens.app to the Applications folder, making it available in the macOS Launchpad.
  5. Add Lens to your Dock by right-clicking on the icon to bring up the context menu and choosing Options, Keep in Dock.

Windows#

  1. Download the Lens installer for Windows.
  2. Once it is downloaded, run the installer Lens-Setup-{version}.exe. This will only take a minute.
  3. By default, Lens is installed under C:\users\{username}\AppData\Local\Programs\Lens.

Linux#

See the Download Lens page for a complete list of available installation options.

After installing Lens manually (not using a package manager file such as .deb or .rpm) the following will need to be done to allow protocol handling. This assumes that your linux distribution uses xdg-open and the xdg-* suite of programs for determining which application can handle custom URIs.

  1. Create a file called lens.desktop in either ~/.local/share/applications/ or /usr/share/applications (if you have permissions and are installing Lens for all users).
  2. That file should have the following contents, with <path/to/executable> being the absolute path to where you have installed the unpacked Lens executable: 
    [Desktop Entry]
Name=Lens
Exec=<path/to/executable> %U
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=lens
StartupWMClass=Lens
Comment=Lens - The Kubernetes IDE
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/lens;
Categories=Network;
  3. Then run the following command: 
    xdg-settings set default-url-scheme-handler lens lens.desktop
  4. If that succeeds (exits with code 0) then your Lens install should be set up to handle lens:// URIs.

Snap#

Lens is officially distributed as a Snap package in the Snap Store:

Get it from the Snap Store

You can install it by running:

sudo snap install kontena-lens --classic

Update Cadence#

Lens releases a new version each month with new features and important bug fixes. Lens supports auto updating and you will be prompted to install the new release when it becomes available!

To stay current with the Lens features, you can review the release notes.

Next Steps#