--- title: "What's new in Lens K8S IDE 2026.10: AI-Built Extensions — Lens Blog — Lens" description: "Create Lens extensions without coding: describe the one you need and your AI tool writes it. Install the most requested features from the new Extension Marketplace." url: https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/ --- [← Blog](https://lenshq.io/blog/) [Lens Release](https://lenshq.io/blog/category/lens-release/) # What's new in Lens K8S IDE 2026.10: AI-Built Extensions Yalton Ruiz September 29, 2026 6 min read **TL;DR:** - **Extension Marketplace.** The features you asked for most, as extensions, one click to install. Publish and clone yours there too. - **Create extensions without coding.** Describe the one you need and your AI tool writes it. Two steps, inside Lens. - **Extensions are not apps.** They are built from Lens public contracts that the AI is aware of. - **Google GKE integration.** Sign in with Google, pick a project, and Lens auto-discovers its running clusters and keeps the list up to date. No gcloud, no kubeconfig to copy. ## Example of most requested public extensions Open **Browse Marketplace** in the navigator and install any of them in one click. These are some of the features our customers requested, now live as extensions: ![Production Cluster Mark: a red window edge and a PROD badge](https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/ext-production-cluster-mark.webp) **[Production Cluster Mark](https://www.npmjs.com/package/production-cluster-mark)**: A red edge around the window when you are on production. ![Colima: start Kubernetes clusters straight from Lens](https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/ext-colima.webp) **[Colima](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@k8slens/colima)**: Deploy, start, and stop local Kubernetes from the navigator. No terminal. ![Lens Glance: describe a dashboard and an AI agent builds it live in Lens](https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/ext-lens-glance.webp) **[Lens Glance](https://www.npmjs.com/package/lens-glance)**: Describe a dashboard and an AI agent builds it live, from any metric in your clusters. ![GitHub Actions: workflow runs next to what each cluster deploys](https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/ext-github-actions.webp) **[GitHub Actions](https://www.npmjs.com/package/lens-github-actions)**: The CI run behind what each cluster deploys, and an alert when one fails. ![Prom King: your own Prometheus dashboards in Lens](https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/ext-prom-king.webp) **[Prom King](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@k8slens/prom-king)**: Prometheus dashboards from your own PromQL, shared across all your clusters. ![Multi-Cluster View: a row of cluster cards](https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/ext-multi-cluster-view.webp) **[Multi-Cluster View](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@k8slens/multi-cluster-view)**: Your whole fleet on one tab: capacity, alerts, and **Ask AI** about any of them. ![Bookmarks: named shortcuts to places in Lens](https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/ext-bookmarks.webp) **[Bookmarks](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@k8slens/bookmarks)**: One click to any resource, list, or web page, pinned to the hotbar. ![Prom Queen: cluster metrics in the Lens hotbar](https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/ext-prom-queen.webp) **[Prom Queen](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@k8slens/prom-queen)**: A live CPU, memory, disk, or pod sparkline in the hotbar, always in view. The whole catalog is in the app, under **Extensions**, and on the [extension web marketplace](https://lenshq.io/extensions/). ## Create your own extensions without coding ![Create extensions without coding: the logos of OpenAI, Claude, Google, and GitHub Copilot above five jigsaw pieces fitted in a row, Create, Publish, Install, Edit, and Clone](https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/create-extensions-without-coding.webp) Two steps, and the extension runs in your Lens. You need one of the AI tools below installed on your machine: 1. **Create.** Open **Extensions** in the navigator, click **Create new**, give it a name, and pick your agent: Claude Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, or OpenCode. 2. **Describe.** Say which column, view, or command you want. The agent writes it against the public contracts Lens exposes, the same ones Lens is built from, and Lens reloads it in place, with no restart. You never open the code unless you want to. ![The New Lens Extension dialog with the AI tool list open: Claude Code selected and installed, GitHub Copilot CLI, Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, OpenCode, Custom, and No AI tool, with Lens showing which tools it detected on the system](https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/new-lens-extension-dialog-full.webp) And everything else, from inside Lens: - **Edit.** Open an installed extension in your AI tool and change it. - **Publish.** One dialog: Lens signs you in to npm and ships it to the Marketplace. - **Share the source on Git.** Link a repository and a license, so others can read, clone, and send changes. - **Clone.** Copy a public extension into your own, when the license allows, and make it yours. - **Update.** Lens checks for new versions every hour and offers them in place. ## Customize your workflows in the same tool With the Argo CD, Flux CD, and Cost Monitoring launches, Lens K8S IDE brought your delivery and cost workflows into the tool. Extensions take the next step: Lens now adapts to your way of working and to the information your team needs, in the same window. Your ticket system next to the resource it is about. Your CLI tools in a tab. The cost, the owner, or the runbook in the column where you look for it. All of it as extensions. **An extension is not a separate app.** It is built from the same components Lens is built from. It plugs into Lens through public contracts: a column, a tab, a navigator item, a menu entry. That is why it looks and behaves like Lens, with your theme and spacing and no CSS of your own, as you can see below in Multi-Cluster View. ![Lens K8S IDE with several extensions at work: the Multi-Cluster View tab showing capacity and alerts of four clusters with Ask AI buttons, Logs Aggregator, Multi-Cluster View, and Smart Notifications items in the navigator, a company logo in the top bar, and Jira and branding-lens items in the status bar](https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/extensions-in-lens.webp) ## Browse Lens public extensions Extensions and the Extension Marketplace ship in Lens K8S IDE 2026.10. Update from inside the app, or download it from [lenshq.io](https://lenshq.io/download/). Browse the public extensions at [lenshq.io/extensions](https://lenshq.io/extensions/). Creating, installing, and publishing extensions are Premium Features, included with the Plus, Pro, and Enterprise plans and with an active trial. On the Free plan you can browse the Marketplace, and installing asks you to upgrade. See [pricing](https://lenshq.io/pricing/). Questions, ideas, or an extension to show? Join the [Lens community Slack](https://inviter.co/lens), the same place **Meet the Community** opens in the navigator. ![The navigator with the Extensions section expanded: Create new, Browse Marketplace, Meet the Community, and Installed listing seven extensions, while the Extension Marketplace is open next to it](https://lenshq.io/blog/lens-release-2026-10/extensions-navigator-section.webp) ## Also in this release - **Google Kubernetes Engine.** Sign in with Google and Lens lists every GKE cluster in your projects. No gcloud, no kubeconfig to copy. A Premium Feature, with its own post coming soon. - **Terminal Shell Arguments.** **Preferences > Terminal** has a new field below **Shell Path**, taking one startup argument per line, such as `-NoProfile` or `--norc`. The cluster terminal and the in-app terminals start the shell with them, ahead of the arguments Lens adds itself. - **A first step under empty AWS EKS and Azure AKS.** An AWS EKS entry with no profiles offers **Add AWS Profile**. An Azure AKS entry with no organizations offers **Add Azure Organization**. - **Helm Releases on busy clusters.** The Helm Releases view asks the cluster only for Helm's own Secrets instead of every Secret. It uses less CPU and memory on clusters with many Secrets, and its context menu stays open while Secrets change. - **Window menu.** A new **Window** menu has **Minimize**, and on macOS **Zoom**, **Bring All to Front**, and the open windows, with **Close Window** on Windows and Linux. - **Electron 44.** Lens runs on Electron 44 with Chromium 152. macOS 12 Monterey is no longer supported: Lens needs macOS 13 Ventura or later. ## Build your first Lens extension [Read the docs](https://docs.k8slens.dev/k8slens/extensions/) [Download](https://lenshq.io/download/)