Merge pull request #41973 from fsmunoz/sig-cli-spotlight

Add SIG CLI Spotlight article

Author: k8s-ci-robot

content/en/blog/_posts/2023-07-20-sig-cli-spotlight.md

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+---
+layout: blog
+title: "Spotlight on SIG CLI"
+date: 2023-07-20
+slug: sig-cli-spotlight-2023
+---
+
+**Author**: Arpit Agrawal
+
+In the world of Kubernetes, managing containerized applications at
+scale requires powerful and efficient tools. The command-line
+interface (CLI) is an integral part of any developer or operator’s
+toolkit, offering a convenient and flexible way to interact with a
+Kubernetes cluster.
+
+SIG CLI plays a crucial role in improving the [Kubernetes
+CLI](https://github.com/kubernetes/community/tree/master/sig-cli)
+experience by focusing on the development and enhancement of
+`kubectl`, the primary command-line tool for Kubernetes.
+
+In this SIG CLI Spotlight, Arpit Agrawal, SIG ContribEx-Comms team
+member, talked with [Katrina Verey](https://github.com/KnVerey), Tech
+Lead & Chair of SIG CLI,and [Maciej
+Szulik](https://github.com/soltysh), SIG CLI Batch Lead, about SIG
+CLI, current projects, challenges and how anyone can get involved.
+
+So, whether you are a seasoned Kubernetes enthusiast or just getting
+started, understanding the significance of SIG CLI will undoubtedly
+enhance your Kubernetes journey.
+
+## Introductions
+
+**Arpit**: Could you tell us a bit about yourself, your role, and how
+you got involved in SIG CLI?
+
+**Maciej**: I’m one of the technical leads for SIG-CLI. I was working
+on Kubernetes in multiple areas since 2014, and in 2018 I got
+appointed a lead.
+
+**Katrina**: I’ve been working with Kubernetes as an end-user since
+2016, but it was only in late 2019 that I discovered how well SIG CLI
+aligned with my experience from internal projects. I started regularly
+attending meetings and made a few small PRs, and by 2021 I was working
+more deeply with the
+[Kustomize](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize) team
+specifically. Later that year, I was appointed to my current roles as
+subproject owner for Kustomize and KRM Functions, and as SIG CLI Tech
+Lead and Chair.
+
+## About SIG CLI
+
+**Arpit**: Thank you! Could you share with us the purpose and goals of SIG CLI?
+
+**Maciej**: Our
+[charter](https://github.com/kubernetes/community/tree/master/sig-cli/)
+has the most detailed description, but in few words, we handle all CLI
+tooling that helps you manage your Kubernetes manifests and interact
+with your Kubernetes clusters.
+
+**Arpit**: I see. And how does SIG CLI work to promote best-practices
+for CLI development and usage in the cloud native ecosystem?
+
+**Maciej**: Within `kubectl`, we have several on-going efforts that
+try to encourage new contributors to align existing commands to new
+standards. We publish several libraries which hopefully make it easier
+to write CLIs that interact with Kubernetes APIs, such as cli-runtime
+and
+[kyaml](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/tree/master/kyaml).
+
+**Katrina**: We also maintain some interoperability specifications for
+CLI tooling, such as the [KRM Functions
+Specification](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/blob/master/cmd/config/docs/api-conventions/functions-spec.md)
+(GA) and the new ApplySet
+Specification
+(alpha).
+
+## Current projects and challenges
+
+**Arpit**: Going through the README file, it’s clear SIG CLI has a
+number of subprojects, could you highlight some important ones?
+
+**Maciej**: The four most active subprojects that are, in my opinion,
+worthy of your time investment would be:
+
+* [`kubectl`](https://github.com/kubernetes/kubectl):  the canonical Kubernetes CLI.
+* [Kustomize](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize): a
+  template-free customization tool for Kubernetes yaml manifest files.
+* [KUI](https://kui.tools) - a GUI interface to Kubernetes, think
+   `kubectl` on steroids.
+* [`krew`](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/krew): a plugin manager for `kubectl`.
+
+**Arpit**: Are there any upcoming initiatives or developments that SIG
+CLI is working on?
+
+**Maciej**: There are always several initiatives we’re working on at
+any given point in time. It’s best to join [one of our
+calls](https://github.com/kubernetes/community/tree/master/sig-cli/#meetings)
+to learn about the current ones.
+
+**Katrina**: For major features, you can check out [our open
+KEPs](https://www.kubernetes.dev/resources/keps/). For instance, in
+1.27 we introduced alphas for [a new pruning mode in kubectl
+apply](https://kubernetes.io/blog/2023/05/09/introducing-kubectl-applyset-pruning/),
+and for kubectl create plugins. Exciting ideas that are currently
+under discussion include an interactive mode for `kubectl` delete
+([KEP
+3895](https://kubernetes.io/blog/2023/05/09/introducing-kubectl-applyset-pruning))
+and the `kuberc` user preferences file ([KEP
+3104](https://kubernetes.io/blog/2023/05/09/introducing-kubectl-applyset-pruning)).
+
+**Arpit**: Could you discuss any challenges that SIG CLI faces in its
+efforts to improve CLIs for cloud-native technologies? What are the
+future efforts to solve them?
+
+**Katrina**: The biggest challenge we’re facing with every decision is
+backwards compatibility and ensuring we don’t break existing users. It
+frequently happens that fixing what's on the surface may seem
+straightforward, but even fixing a bug could constitute a breaking
+change for some users, which means we need to go through an extended
+deprecation process to change it, or in some cases we can’t change it
+at all. Another challenge is the need to balance customization with
+usability in the flag sets we expose on our tools. For example, we get
+many proposals for new flags that would certainly be useful to some
+users, but not a large enough subset to justify the increased
+complexity having them in the tool entails for everyone. The `kuberc`
+proposal may help with some of these problems by giving individual
+users the ability to set or override default values we can’t change,
+and even create custom subcommands via aliases
+
+**Arpit**: With every new version release of Kubernetes, maintaining
+consistency and integrity is surely challenging: how does the SIG CLI
+team tackle it?
+
+**Maciej**: This is mostly similar to the topic mentioned in the
+previous question: every new change, especially to existing commands
+goes through a lot of scrutiny to ensure we don’t break existing
+users. At any point in time we have to keep a reasonable balance
+between features and not breaking users.
+
+## Future plans and contribution
+
+**Arpit**: How do you see the role of CLI tools in the cloud-native
+ecosystem evolving in the future?
+
+**Maciej**: I think that CLI tools were and will always be an
+important piece of the ecosystem. Whether used by administrators on
+remote machines that don’t have GUI or in every CI/CD pipeline, they
+are irreplaceable.
+
+**Arpit**: Kubernetes is a community-driven project. Any
+recommendation for anyone looking into getting involved in SIG CLI
+work? Where should they start? Are there any prerequisites?
+
+**Maciej**: There are no prerequisites other than a little bit of free
+time on your hands and willingness to learn something new :-)
+
+**Katrina**: A working knowledge of [Go](https://go.dev/) often helps,
+but we also have areas in need of non-code contributions, such as the
+[Kustomize docs consolidation
+project](https://github.com/kubernetes-sigs/kustomize/issues/4338).