Building OpenLens On Mac

Intro

For some time now I’ve been using Lens, a convenient tool for browsing Kubernetes clusters. Recently the pre-built binaries now require users to have a Lens ID; cannot use the app without it. There’s a Twitter thread and a Github thread filled with drama regarding the situation. The good news is we can just compile OpenLens, and don’t have to deal with any of the closed-source stuff we don’t want.

Requirements

  • make
  • nvm
  • yarn (npm install --global yarn)

Build It

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git clone https://github.com/lensapp/lens.git # Or git clone git@github.com:lensapp/lens.git
cd lens
git checkout tags/v5.5.3 # Currently most recent stable tag
nvm use 14
yarn install
make build
ll dist/OpenLens*.dmg

Install

Open the .dmg file that was built, and install the app as normal.

Note: The binary wont be signed, and MacOS will complain about it. The workaround is to control+click on the app to open it the first time. If you have a developer certificate this wont be a problem.