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Access the platform

Everything on the platform is an API object, so you can operate it with the tools your team already uses. Anything the web console does, the Kubernetes API does.

Web console

The console handles cluster, workload, virtual machine and storage management, plus the developer catalog and the AI/ML workbenches. It is the fastest way to see what exists and to try something once.

Command line

The platform is driven with oc, the OpenShift CLI. It is a superset of kubectl — every kubectl command works under oc, plus OpenShift-specific ones like oc new-project and oc adm. These docs use oc throughout.

brew install openshift-cli

curl -LO https://mirror.openshift.com/pub/openshift-v4/clients/ocp/stable/openshift-client-linux.tar.gz
tar -xzf openshift-client-linux.tar.gz oc
sudo install -o root -g root -m 0755 oc /usr/local/bin/oc

Download openshift-client-windows.zip from the OpenShift client mirror and add oc.exe to your PATH.

Match the client to the cluster

The console's Command Line Tools page serves the oc build that matches your cluster version. Prefer it over a package manager if you hit a version mismatch.

Log in

oc login --token=<your-token> --server=<your-cluster-api-endpoint>
oc project myapp-dev

Get your token and API endpoint from the console under Copy login command.

Treat tokens as credentials

A login token grants everything your account can do. Do not commit one to Git, paste it into an issue, or share it in chat. Use a service account token with a narrow role for automation — see below.

Verify

oc whoami
oc get all -n myapp-dev

Tokens for automation

For CI, scripts and agents, create a service account and bind it the narrowest role that works:

oc create serviceaccount deployer -n myapp-dev
oc adm policy add-role-to-user edit -z deployer -n myapp-dev
oc create token deployer -n myapp-dev --duration=24h

Short-lived tokens are preferred. Rotate long-lived ones on a schedule.

Helm, GitOps and the API

  • Helm — standard charts, no platform-specific packaging
  • GitOps — Argo CD reconciles manifests, charts and Operators from your repository
  • Kubernetes API — the primary interface; the console and CLI are clients of it

See Reference for API, CLI and SDK details.

Next

Pick a tutorial and deploy something.