How to Attach a Shell to a Pod in OpenLens

Classic “Corporate ruins everything” situation

Once Upon a Time in OpenLens Land…

Back in the good ol’ days, OpenLens (the open-source version of Lens) was a fantastic tool.

It was like the Swiss Army knife of Kubernetes management—easy to use, powerful, and best of all, it let you attach a shell to pods right from the UI.

Life was good.

Shells and pods lived in harmony….

Then came Mirantis. Dramatic music plays.

The Great Commercialization of Lens

Mirantis, a company known for OpenStack and other cloud wizardry, acquired Lens and decided, “Hey, what if we made money off this?” (which, let’s be fair, is what companies do).

They introduced a commercial version of Lens, started paywalling features, and in the process, stripped OpenLens of some goodies—including the Attach Shell feature.

That’s right. One day you’re happily right-clicking your pod and opening a shell like a Kubernetes wizard, and the next day—poof!—the option is gone.

Why Did They Do This?

Because money. 💰

By removing features from OpenLens, they made the paid Lens version more attractive.

It’s the classic “take something free, lock it up, sell it back” move.

Some people call this “feature gating,” but honestly, it felt more like “feature stealing.”

What Can You Do About It?

• Use a plugin like @alebcay/openlens-node-pod-menu to bring back shell access (unless they block that too).
• Go full hacker mode and just use kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -- /bin/bash like the Kubernetes command-line ninja you were meant to be.
• Complain loudly on the internet. The louder you scream, the more likely open-source forks and alternatives will appear.

So what exactly is a Docker, a Kubernetes and an Openlens?

Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenLens Walk Into a Bar…

Okay, they don’t actually walk into a bar, but if they did, Docker would be the friendly bartender, Kubernetes would be the overzealous manager, and OpenLens would be the chill customer trying to make sense of the chaos.

Docker (Website, Wikipedia)

Docker came first, and it revolutionized software deployment by creating containers—lightweight, portable environments that ensure “it works on my machine” actually means something.

Kubernetes (Website, Wikipedia)

Kubernetes (K8s for short, because who has time for syllables?) took things up a notch by orchestrating these containers across multiple machines.

It automates scaling, load balancing, and deployments, making sure your applications don’t crash and burn.

OpenLens (Website, Wikipedia)

OpenLens is a GUI for Kubernetes, making it easier to manage clusters, inspect logs, and—yes—attach a shell to pods without memorizing kubectl commands.

Attaching a Shell to a Pod in OpenLens

Installing the @alebcay/openlens-node-pod-menu Extension

If you want to attach a shell to a pod using OpenLens, you need the @alebcay/openlens-node-pod-menu extension.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Open OpenLens.
2. Navigate to File → Extensions.
3. Search for @alebcay/openlens-node-pod-menu.
4. Click Install and Enable it.

Using the Menu to Attach a Shell

Once installed and enabled:

1. Go to Workloads → Pods.
2. Right-click on the pod.
3. Select Attach Shell.

If it’s not there, don’t panic! Here are some troubleshooting steps:

(it didnt work for me on the first time until i re-started openlens)

• Check the Developer Console: View → Developer → Toggle Developer Tools. Look for errors.
• Verify Permissions: Run kubectl auth can-i exec pods --namespace <namespace>. If it says “no,” you need better Kubernetes privileges.
• Restart OpenLens: Because turning it off and on again works more often than you’d think.

Alternative Methods (Because Sometimes GUI Just Won’t Cut It)

If OpenLens is being stubborn, here are some other ways to get a shell into a pod:

1. Using kubectl exec

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kubectl exec -it <pod-name> -- /bin/bash

If /bin/bash isn’t available, try /bin/sh instead.

2. Using kubectl attach

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kubectl attach -it <pod-name> --container <container-name>

This method lets you attach to an already running process inside the pod.

3. Using kubectl debug (For Newer Kubernetes Versions)

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kubectl debug -it <pod-name> --image=busybox

This creates a temporary debugging container inside the pod.

Wrapping Up

Using OpenLens to attach a shell to a pod is convenient, but sometimes things don’t go as planned. If the @alebcay/openlens-node-pod-menu extension doesn’t work, fall back to good old kubectl.

More Information

• Docker: https://www.docker.com/
• Kubernetes: https://kubernetes.io/
• OpenLens: https://github.com/lensapp/lens
• Kubectl Commands: https://kubernetes.io/docs/reference/kubectl/