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Onboarding wizard#

The onboarding wizard appears the first time you launch Lens K8S IDE after signing in. It walks you through four steps: connecting cloud Kubernetes environments, syncing local kubeconfigs, selecting an AI tool for Ask AI, and enabling the Lens MCP Server. A Steps to start X/4 counter tracks your progress.

Move between steps with Next and Back. The final step replaces Next with Go to Lens, which closes the wizard. Close the wizard at any time with the X in the top-right corner.

Tip

To reopen the wizard later, select Help > Welcome, then select Open Onboarding Wizard... under Start.

Prerequisites#

Step 1: Kubernetes Environments#

The first step connects cloud-based Kubernetes environments through the built-in native integrations. It shows an Azure AKS and an AWS EKS section, each with a connection status and a button to start the account-connection flow.

Onboarding wizard Step 1, Kubernetes Environments, showing the Azure AKS and AWS EKS sections with connection status and account buttons

Azure AKS: select Add Azure Account to start the Azure OAuth flow. Lens K8S IDE authenticates with your Azure account and discovers AKS clusters across your Azure subscriptions. For authentication options, see Add Azure AKS clusters.

AWS EKS: select Add AWS Account to start the AWS flow. Lens K8S IDE discovers EKS clusters across your AWS accounts using the credentials you supply. For options (SSO, Access Key, IAM Role), see Add AWS EKS clusters.

You do not need to connect both providers now. Connect what you need and add the rest later from Preferences > Integrations. Select Next to continue.

Step 2: Local Kubeconfigs#

The second step connects local kubeconfig files. It shows a Local Kubeconfigs section with a connection status and a table of watched paths (Path, Type, Clusters). By default, Lens K8S IDE watches ~/.kube (macOS and Linux) or %USERPROFILE%\.kube (Windows), and picks up changes to those files in real time without a restart.

Onboarding wizard Step 2, Local Kubeconfigs, showing the connection status and the Watch files & folders and Manually add kubeconfig actions

  • Watch files & folders: open a picker to add more kubeconfig paths to watch.
  • Manually add kubeconfig: paste kubeconfig content directly instead of pointing to a file.

For the full local-cluster workflow (pasting, importing, custom sync paths), see Add a local cluster. Select Next to continue or Back to return.

Step 3: AI tool#

The third step selects the AI tool that Lens K8S IDE uses for Ask AI. The header shows how many supported tools it detects on your system, for example 2 of 5 detected on your system, with a Refresh link.

Select the AI tool you want Ask AI to launch, such as Claude Code or Gemini CLI. Each tool is marked INSTALLED, or offers a HOW TO INSTALL link if it is not found on your PATH. You can change this selection later on the Preferences > External Tools > AI tool page. For the full list of tools and setup details, see Configure Ask AI.

Onboarding wizard Step 3, AI tool, showing the tool list with Claude Code selected and marked installed

Info

Ask AI is a Lens premium subscription feature. When your plan does not include it, this step shows an upgrade option instead of the tool selection.

Select Next to continue or Back to return.

Step 4: MCP Server#

The final step enables the Lens MCP Server and provides the configuration snippet for your MCP client. It shows an Enable Lens MCP Server toggle. Turn it on to expose Lens capabilities to AI agents and tools through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), for Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and other MCP-compatible clients.

Onboarding wizard Step 4, MCP Server, showing the Enable Lens MCP Server toggle and the generated MCP client configuration snippet

Expand Configure your MCP client to reveal the snippet. Lens K8S IDE generates it with the absolute path to the bundled Lens CLI, so your MCP client can launch the server without relying on your shell PATH:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "lens": {
      "command": "/Applications/Lens.app/Contents/Resources/cli/bin/lens-cli-...",
      "args": ["mcp-server"]
    }
  }
}

Select the copy icon, then paste the snippet into your MCP client configuration (for example, .mcp.json in your project root). The path in the command field differs per platform and install location, so always copy the snippet from the wizard rather than typing it. Restart your MCP client for the change to take effect. For a full walkthrough, see Get started with Lens MCP Server.

Select Go to Lens to close the wizard, or Back to return. This step has no Finish or Skip button; Go to Lens is the exit action whether or not you copy the snippet.

Verify the setup#

After the wizard closes, confirm that your configuration is active:

  1. Open the Catalog in the left sidebar and check that your connected clusters appear in the list.
  2. Open Ask AI and send a test prompt.

Change settings later#

Change these settings at any time from Preferences:

  • Cluster connections and the Lens MCP Server toggle: Preferences > Integrations.
  • The AI tool selection: Preferences > External Tools > AI tool.