Feature Request: Auto-refresh mTLS Credentials for Log Streaming in K9s

[uozalp]

Describe the problem
We are using Pinniped for authentication with Kubernetes, and our mTLS credentials are renewed every 5 minutes. However, when using K9s (0.40.5) to tail logs, the stream stops once the token expires, displaying the following error:

stream canceled read tcp 172.29.42.76:35550->192.168.170.32:443: use of closed network connection for mynamespace/pod

When checking my credentials:

Every 1.0s: cat ~/.config/pinniped/credentials.yaml | yq '.credentials[].credential.expirationTimestamp'
2025-02-19T12:52:42Z

As soon as this timestamp expires, K9s stops tailing logs, and I have to manually go back a view and press L again to restart log streaming.

Expected Behavior

When running:

kubectl logs -f app-6ccxvbc8f74-b5jn5 -n my-namespace

the log stream continues uninterrupted despite the credentials expiring, suggesting that kubectl refreshes tokens automatically.

Suggested Improvement

• Add a token refresh mechanism to ensure that logs continue streaming even when credentials expire.
• Leverage retry logic already present in K9s to detect authentication failures and re-establish the log stream with fresh credentials.

Additional Notes

• I have looked into the K9s code and noticed there is a retry mechanism in place, but it doesn’t seem to handle token refresh.
• I am willing to contribute a Pull Request if I can get some direction on where this logic should be implemented.