spawnSync kubectl ENOENT error

[kitzy]

Hi! I'm having trouble getting the Kubernetes MCP server to connect to my cluster. I'm sure I just have something misconfigured on my end but I can't seem to figure out what.

Environment

• macOS
• Claude Desktop with Kubernetes MCP Server installed and enabled
• kubectl installed at /usr/local/bin/kubectl and working correctly in terminal

Problem

The MCP server consistently fails to execute any kubectl commands with the error:

spawnSync kubectl ENOENT

Full error example from logs:

2026-01-06T03:09:10.544Z [Kubernetes MCP Server] [info] Message from server: {"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":6,"error":{"code":-32603,"message":"MCP error -32603: Failed to execute kubectl get command: MCP error -32603: Failed to get resource: spawnSync kubectl ENOENT"}}

What I've verified

• kubectl works perfectly from my terminal (kubectl config get-contexts shows my k3s context correctly)
• which kubectl returns /usr/local/bin/kubectl
• ~/.kube/config exists and is readable
• Full computer reboot (to ensure PATH is picked up)

Current MCP Server Configuration

The server is installed as an extension in Claude Desktop with minimal configuration - there doesn't appear to be a way to configure environment variables through the UI.

Question

Is there a way to configure the PATH environment variable for the Kubernetes MCP server? The ENOENT error suggests the MCP server process can't find kubectl in its PATH, even though it's in a standard location (/usr/local/bin). This seems like a common macOS GUI app issue where GUI applications don't inherit the full shell PATH.

Any guidance on how to properly configure this would be greatly appreciated!

[Flux159]

I can't seem to repro with my Claude Desktop - what version of Claude Desktop are you using & what version does it show for the extension ("..." -> Details should show you at the bottom)?

Here's what I'm seeing:

The other alternative is instead of using the extension, you could try to use Developer -> edit config for running it as a local mcp server (and you should be able to configure env vars in that too - https://github.com/Flux159/mcp-server-kubernetes?tab=readme-ov-file#advanced).

[kitzy]

This is what I see on my end.

[Flux159]

Were you able to try using the developer config rather than the extension? I don't know if that would provide additional logs.

Do you get any errors if you manually run npx mcp-server-kubernetes via Terminal? (under normal use that will just show "Starting Kubernetes MCP..." because it's expecting input on stdin).

Alternatively if you have an anthropic api key, if you do npx mcp-chat --server "npx mcp-server-kubernetes", that should give you a Repl which you can type in an example prompt to test with. mcp-chat is my other project I made specifically to test out issues with this / other mcp servers.

Difficult to debug without additional logging, but assuming it's some PATH issue. Just for sanity, kubectl is in your PATH even without .zshrc modifications right? My kubectl is provided from rancher desktop & that is picked up fine ~/.rd/bin is added to my path in this case.

[kitzy]

Were you able to try using the developer config rather than the extension? I don't know if that would provide additional logs.

Using the developer config works, surprisingly! I wonder what's different?

Do you get any errors if you manually run npx mcp-server-kubernetes via Terminal?

No errors, seems to run fine.

% npx mcp-server-kubernetes
Need to install the following packages:
mcp-server-kubernetes@3.0.5
Ok to proceed? (y) y

Starting Kubernetes MCP server v0.1.0, handling commands...
^CReceived SIGINT, shutting down...

Just for sanity, kubectl is in your PATH even without .zshrc modifications right?

Yes.

% which kubectl
/usr/local/bin/kubectl

[rr-paras-patel]

One common workaround on macOS is to create a symlink to kubectl in /usr/bin (which is typically always on the GUI app's PATH):

sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/kubectl /usr/bin/kubectl

Alternatively, you might try launching Claude Desktop from the terminal—this will allow the app to inherit the PATH from your shell:

open -a "Claude Desktop"

[rr-paras-patel]

Option 3: Use Developer config with KUBECTL_PATH

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "kubernetes": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["mcp-server-kubernetes"],
      "env": {
        "KUBECTL_PATH": "/usr/local/bin/kubectl"
      }
    }
  }
}