Smart filters¶

Every resource list has a search box. By default it's a plain text search, so every word you type has to appear somewhere in the row (name, namespace, cluster, status, node, images or labels). Start your query with a / and it becomes a smart filter, with structured clauses for status categories, numeric comparisons, labels and ages that narrow thousands of pods down to the ones that matter in one line:

/status:crash ns:prod cpu>500m restarts>3

The moment you type /, Kubus autocompletes the keys that make sense for the kind you're looking at, including live values (your namespaces, clusters and nodes).

How queries work¶

• The query starts with /; everything after it is the smart filter.
• Clauses are separated by spaces and ANDed together.
• A clause is either free text (nginx) or key:value / key>value / key<value.
• OR alternatives with a comma: /status:crash,oom, /ns:dev,staging.
• Negate with !: both /!ns:kube-system and /status:!running work.
• Quotes protect spaces: /name:"billing worker".
• Everything is case-insensitive, and an unknown key just falls back to free text.

Universal keys¶

uid: helps when an event, an audit log or an owner reference names an object only by its UID. Paste the UID (or its first few characters) into the list of that kind to find the object. On the Events list it also matches the UID of the object an event is about.

status: understands aliases beyond the literal status text:

• crash → CrashLoopBackOff, oom → OOMKilled
• error → errors, failures and backoffs of any flavour
• unhealthy → anything not fully up, healthy → the rest; works for pods, workloads and nodes
• degraded / progressing → workloads with fewer ready replicas than desired
• completed → Succeeded pods and complete Jobs

Kind-specific keys¶

Filtering by label¶

The search box also holds a server-side label selector, shown as tokens at its start. Type part of a label and the suggestions list the matching keys and key=value pairs present in the rows; pick one to add it as a token. A selector typed as-is, such as env!=prod, !canary or tier in (web,api), becomes a token when you press Enter. A plain word stays a text search, so for a bare key write label:team. Tokens are ANDed together. Click a token's ✕ to remove it, or press Backspace in the empty field to remove the last one.

To browse instead of typing, click the label icon () at the end of the search box. It lists every label key in the list, most common first, with its values and how many rows carry each. Tick as many as you like; the panel stays open while you pick. A search box at the top narrows the list, and a selector field at the bottom takes anything the list can't offer. When more tokens are set than fit in the search box, the +N chip opens the same panel, where each one can be removed.

Every row also shows its labels as chips in the Labels column. Hover to see them all, and click a chip to add it to the label filter.

Saved views remember your filter¶

A smart filter is part of the page URL, so saved views capture it. Save /status:unhealthy in prod once and it's one click from the nav drawer from then on.

See also¶