---
title: "How to change contexts in Kubernetes"
slug: "how-to-change-contexts-in-kubernetes"
updated: 2025-12-23T14:58:58Z
published: 2025-12-23T14:58:58Z
canonical: "docs.swxtch.io/how-to-change-contexts-in-kubernetes"
stale: true
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.swxtch.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How to change contexts in Kubernetes

**WHAT TO EXPECT**

**In this article**, users will learn how to change the working context in a Kubernetes environment to use a different default.

### To Change K8s Context in Your Preferred Cloud

If there is more than one K8s cluster in your preferred cloud, then users may need to switch between them to run commands in the Cloud Shell Linux console. Below are the steps to switch between K8s clusters.

1. Get a list of all K8s Contexts by using the following command:

```shell
kubectl config get-contexts
```

Example in Azure:

```shell
$ kubectl config get-contexts
CURRENT   NAME                 CLUSTER              AUTHINFO                                          NAMESPACE
          cilium-sample        cilium-sample        clusterUser_saDevNetwork_cilium-sample            
          cilium-sample-200    cilium-sample-200    clusterUser_test-donna-200-rg_cilium-sample-200   
          cilium-sample2       cilium-sample2       clusterUser_saDevNetwork_cilium-sample2           
*         cilium-sample300     cilium-sample300     clusterUser_test-donna-300-rg_cilium-sample300    
          dsd-k8-cluster-100   dsd-k8-cluster-100   clusterUser_saDevNetwork_dsd-k8-cluster-100  
```

Notice in the above list, there are multiple contexts, but only one has the asterisks (*). The asterisks mark the default context.
2. To change context, run the following command. The example is changing to cilium-sample2.

```shell
kubectl config use-context cilium-sample2
```
3. Re-run the **get-context** command:

```shell
kubectl config get-contexts
```

Example in Azure:

```shell
$ kubectl config get-contexts
CURRENT   NAME                 CLUSTER              AUTHINFO                                          NAMESPACE
          cilium-sample        cilium-sample        clusterUser_saDevNetwork_cilium-sample            
          cilium-sample-200    cilium-sample-200    clusterUser_test-donna-200-rg_cilium-sample-200   
*         cilium-sample2       cilium-sample2       clusterUser_saDevNetwork_cilium-sample2           
          cilium-sample300     cilium-sample300     clusterUser_test-donna-300-rg_cilium-sample300    
          dsd-k8-cluster-100   dsd-k8-cluster-100   clusterUser_saDevNetwork_dsd-k8-cluster-100
```

As can be seen above, the asterisk (*) has changed positions to the desired context, cilium-sample2.