Kubernetes? Too simple.
You have a Kubernetes project. You want to run it locally with docker compose. You don't want to think about it.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dekubeio/kubernetes2simple/main/kubernetes2simple.sh -o k2s.sh
chmod +x k2s.sh
./k2s.sh
docker compose up -dThe script looks at your project, figures out what it is, installs whatever tools are missing, and produces a working docker compose setup. Everything it downloads lives in .kubernetes2simple/ — your system stays clean.
- Docker (with
docker compose) - Python 3.10+
That's all. The rest is handled.
./k2s.sh [--env <environment>] [--output-dir <dir>] [--clean]
--env selects a helmfile environment if your project uses one. --clean wipes the local cache and starts fresh.
The script generates three files: compose.yml, Caddyfile, and dekube.yaml.
You can re-run it safely. Your compose.yml and Caddyfile are regenerated every time — don't edit them by hand, your changes will be overwritten. If you need to customize something (exclude a service, override an image, pin a volume path), edit dekube.yaml instead. That file is yours — the script reads it but never overwrites it.
TLS is best-effort. If your project uses cert-manager certificates, the script generates self-signed certs locally so things can start. This is fine for development. It is not a replacement for your actual certificate setup — don't ship this to production expecting real TLS.
Some things won't convert. CronJobs, resource limits, probes, HPA — anything that doesn't have a compose equivalent is skipped with a warning. This is expected. The goal is a working local environment, not a 1:1 replica of your cluster.
Open an issue. Describe what you pointed it at, paste the output. We'll figure it out.
Just don't ask how it works.
You want answers? Click at your own risk.
kubernetes2simple is the turnkey face of dekube — an heretical, overengineered conversion engine that parses Kubernetes manifests, resolves ConfigMaps and Secrets, rewrites Service DNS, generates TLS certificates, produces reverse proxy configurations, and reassembles the whole thing as docker compose services. It has an extension system, a package manager, a fake API server for the things that can't be faked, a regression test suite with an O(n³) torture generator, and documentation written in the tone of forbidden texts.
It was not designed. It was revealed, one mass-produced horror at a time, across increasingly unhinged vibe-coding sessions. The Lovecraftian quotes in the docs started as a joke. They stopped being funny around the third project.
kubernetes2simple bundles the engine, all official extensions, and a bootstrap script into a single command so you never have to see any of this. You're welcome.