Kubernetes provides a command line tool for communicating with a Kubernetes cluster's control plane, using the Kubernetes API. This tool is named kubectl. For configuration, kubectl looks for a file named config in the $HOME/.kube directory. You can specify other kubeconfig files by setting the KUBECONFIG environment variable or by setting the --kubeconfig flag. This overview covers kubectl syntax, describes the command operations, and provides common examples. For details about each command, including all the supported flags and subcommands, see the kubectl reference documentation.