What Headlamp is

Buddy Cluster runs on Kubernetes underneath, and one screen in the panel gives you a direct line into it: Headlamp. You don’t need it to run your cluster. Nothing else in these docs assumes you’ve ever opened it. This page exists for the times you go looking anyway, or someone tells you to check something in it.

What it’s for

Headlamp is the detailed view of your cluster’s resources that the panel deliberately doesn’t rebuild itself: everything the panel’s own screens keep out of your way, in Kubernetes’ own terms rather than the panel’s. The panel’s own card is upfront about who that’s for: it labels Headlamp “for power users.”

Where to find it

Open the panel’s Cluster screen, on its Kubernetes tab. Partway down is a card labelled “Headlamp — advanced Kubernetes UI,” with a status badge next to it. If the badge says “installing…”, Headlamp is still rolling out. Check back shortly; once it says “ready,” you’re good to go.

The Headlamp card on the Cluster screen's Kubernetes tab, with its access-token controls

Signing in

Headlamp keeps its own sign-in, separate from the panel’s, so getting in takes three steps, done in order:

1. On the card, click Get access token. It mints a short-lived token and copies it to your clipboard for you. It expires, so do this right before you use it, not in advance; click the button again for a fresh one if it runs out.
2. Click Open Headlamp to open it in a new tab. It opens at an address on the master itself, not inside the panel’s own pages. If you ever type that address in by hand, keep the trailing slash — /headlamp/, not /headlamp — Headlamp only answers under that exact path.
3. Paste the token into Headlamp’s own sign-in screen.

From there, you’re looking at the cluster the way Kubernetes itself sees it, a different vocabulary from the rest of the panel, on purpose.