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kubectx change indent of yaml file (osx arm) #511
Description
Hi,
First of all, I am grateful for kubectx, it makes things easier for us.
When I switch contexts using kubectx, the YAML file's indentation changes, extra spaces are added. This doesn't happen with the command kubectl config use-context k8sxxx1.
NOTE: I use the configuration with the KUBECONFIG variable in .zprofile file.
Simple example:
Original ident of file:
apiVersion: v1
clusters:
- cluster:
certificate-authority-data: xxxxxxx
server: https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:6443
name: k8sxxx1
- cluster:
certificate-authority-data: xxxxxxx
server: https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:6443
name: k8sxxx2
....
Command: kubectx k8sxxx1
apiVersion: v1
clusters:
- cluster:
certificate-authority-data: xxxxxxx
server: https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:6443
name: k8sxxx1
- cluster:
certificate-authority-data: xxxxxxx
server: https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:6443
name: k8sxxx2
....
OSX
ProductName: macOS
ProductVersion: 26.5.2
BuildVersion: 25F84
Darwin 172-16-49-17.lan.uchile.cl 25.5.0 Darwin Kernel Version 25.5.0: Tue Jun 9 22:28:24 PDT 2026; root:xnu-12377.121.10~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T6020 arm64
kubectx installed with brew:
kubectx ✔ 0.11.0 (15 files, 50.7MB) [Linked]
I used with the console: iTerm2 or Terminal
Activity
dosubot commentedon Aug 31, 2026
Hi @victorcisternas! I'm Dosu and I'm helping the ahmetb's Org team.
This is related to issue #499, which is still open. The root cause is in the
Save()function ininternal/kubeconfig/kubeconfig.go— it callsenc.SetIndent(0)on the YAML encoder [1]. An AI-generated analysis posted in that issue suggests thatSetIndent(0)in the underlyinggo.yaml.in/yaml/v3library falls back to a default of 4 spaces rather than preserving the original formatting, which produces the wider indentation you're seeing [2]. Note that the maintainer @ahmetb flagged that analysis as unverified and has not been able to reproduce the problem himself.As of v0.11.0 and the current
mainbranch,Save()still hardcodesenc.SetIndent(0)[3], so no fix has been merged yet. A proposed fix (SetIndent(2)) exists on an experimental branch but has not landed in any release [2].For some users in #499, this same file-rewriting behavior had a more serious side effect: background tools watching
~/.kube/config(Docker Desktop, cloud CLI auth helpers, etc.) would detect the reformatted file and overwrite it, silently reverting the context/namespace switch [4]. If you're only seeing the indentation change and your context switches still work, you're not affected by that secondary problem — but it's worth being aware of if you use any kubeconfig-syncing tools.As a workaround in the meantime, you can fall back to
kubectl config use-context <name>, which preserves the original file formatting.To reply, just mention @dosu.
Share context across your team and agents. Try Dosu.
an-tex commentedon Sep 16, 2026
yep same issue here