Introduction to rpk

Redpanda Keeper (rpk) is a single binary application that provides a way to interact with your Redpanda clusters from the command line. You can install the rpk binary as a standalone tool. For example, you can use rpk to do the following:

• Interact with a Redpanda cluster.
• Run the autotuner tool to optimize the Linux kernel to give you the best performance.

note

Redpanda includes rpk as part of the installation. Follow this guide only if you want to install rpk as a standalone tool.

To install the rpk binary as a standalone application, follow the instructions for your operating system.

Install rpk on Linux

1. Download the rpk archive for Linux:

   curl -LO https://github.com/redpanda-data/redpanda/releases/latest/download/rpk-linux-amd64.zip

2. Ensure that you have the folder ~/.local/bin:

   mkdir -p ~/.local/bin

3. Add it to your $PATH:

   export PATH="~/.local/bin:$PATH"

4. Unzip the rpk files to your ~/.local/bin/ directory:

   unzip rpk-linux-amd64.zip -d ~/.local/bin/

5. Run rpk version to display the rpk binary version:

   rpk version
   Example output

   v22.3.11 (rev 9eefb907c)

Install rpk on macOS

Homebrew

1. If you don't have Homebrew installed, install it.

2. Install rpk:

   brew install redpanda-data/tap/redpanda

3. Run rpk version to display the rpk binary version:

   rpk version
   Example output

   v22.3.11 (rev 9eefb907c)

Manual Download

To install rpk through a manual download, choose an option that corresponds to your system architecture. For example, if you have an M1 or M2 chip, use the Apple Silicon instructions.

Intel macOS

1. Download the rpk archive for macOS:

   curl -LO https://github.com/redpanda-data/redpanda/releases/latest/download/rpk-darwin-amd64.zip

2. Ensure that you have the folder ~/.local/bin:

   mkdir -p ~/.local/bin

3. Add it to your $PATH:

   export PATH=$PATH:~/.local/bin

4. Unzip the rpk files to your ~/.local/bin/ directory:

   unzip rpk-darwin-amd64.zip -d ~/.local/bin/

5. Run rpk version to display the rpk binary version:

   rpk version
   Example output

   v22.3.11 (rev 9eefb907c)

Apple Silicon

1. Download the rpk archive for macOS:

   curl -LO https://github.com/redpanda-data/redpanda/releases/latest/download/rpk-darwin-arm64.zip

2. Ensure that you have the folder ~/.local/bin:

   mkdir -p ~/.local/bin

3. Add it to your $PATH:

   export PATH=$PATH:~/.local/bin

4. Unzip the rpk files to your ~/.local/bin/ directory:

   unzip rpk-darwin-arm64.zip -d ~/.local/bin/

5. Run rpk version to display the rpk binary version:

   rpk version
   Example output

   v22.3.11 (rev 9eefb907c)

Next steps

For a list of all rpk commands and their syntax, see the rpk documentation.