`snapshot`

kix snapshot saves what Kix currently manages in a cluster to a directory. The directory is the old side of a later kix diff --from, so a build can be compared with the cluster without cluster access.

This page is hand-maintained. Check cli/kix-cli/src/cli.rs and cli/kix-cli/src/commands/snapshot.rs when in doubt.

Subcommands

Subcommand	Purpose
save <DIR>	Fetch every Kix-managed resource from the selected Kubernetes context and write it to <DIR>

kix snapshot save <DIR>

kix snapshot save <DIR> [--context <CONTEXT>] [--quiet]

Argument or flag	Meaning
<DIR>	Directory to write. An existing directory is replaced in one step, so a failed save never leaves a half-written snapshot. Paths containing .. are rejected.
--context <CONTEXT>	Kubeconfig context to read. Defaults to the current context.
-q, --quiet	Suppress the progress lines on stderr.

The command reads the cluster only. It does not evaluate a flake, so --flake and --no-cache have no effect.

What is saved

The save lists every resource carrying the Kix managed-by label, keeps the ones Kix actually applied, and writes each one as the fields Kix applied. Kubernetes records which tool set each field through server-side apply, and Kix reads that record to keep only its own fields. Server defaults, status, and fields written by controllers or by kubectl are left out.

Included:

• every namespaced and cluster-scoped resource Kix applied, including PackageInstance records and the Activation record;
• the Kix annotations that identify each resource’s package, identity hash, and dependencies.

Excluded:

• status and anything a controller wrote;
• server-side defaults Kix never sent;
• the bookkeeping annotations Kix writes after applying (activations and applied hash), which change on every deploy without being a content change;
• resources that only carry the label because a controller copied it, such as Pods and EndpointSlices.

A resource Kix manages can be a Secret. Its data is part of what Kix applied, so it is part of the snapshot. Store snapshots where you would store the rendered manifests.

Directory layout

<DIR>/
  README.md                       # timestamp, context, resource count
  <namespace>/<name>-<kind>.yaml  # one file per namespaced resource
  _cluster/<name>-<kind>.yaml     # one file per cluster-scoped resource

Kinds are lower-cased in file names, for example how-to-app/production-deployment.yaml.

Exit status

Code	Meaning
0	Snapshot written
1	The cluster could not be reached, API discovery failed, or a listing failed

Using a snapshot

Pass the directory to kix diff:

kix diff <CLUSTER> --from <DIR>

That comparison runs without Kubernetes access. Save a fresh snapshot after each deploy; a snapshot describes the cluster at the moment it was taken.

Reference

See kix diff for the other old-side sources and the output formats.

Use it in a task

See Use snapshots for offline or CI diffs for the day-to-day workflow, or Save and diff snapshots for offline CI to run the comparison in a pipeline without cluster credentials.