# Command line arguments

kube-state-metrics can be configured through command line arguments.

Those arguments can be passed during startup when running locally:

`kube-state-metrics --telemetry-port=8081 --kubeconfig=<KUBE-CONFIG> --apiserver=<APISERVER> ...`

Or configured in the `args` section of your deployment configuration in a Kubernetes / Openshift context:

```yaml
spec:
  template:
    spec:
      containers:
        - args:
          - '--telemetry-port=8081'
          - '--kubeconfig=<KUBE-CONFIG>'
          - '--apiserver=<APISERVER>'
```

## Available options:

[embedmd]:# (../help.txt)
```txt
$ kube-state-metrics -h
Usage of ./kube-state-metrics:
      --add_dir_header                   If true, adds the file directory to the header
      --alsologtostderr                  log to standard error as well as files
      --apiserver string                 The URL of the apiserver to use as a master
      --collectors string                Comma-separated list of collectors to be enabled. Defaults to "certificatesigningrequests,configmaps,cronjobs,daemonsets,deployments,endpoints,horizontalpodautoscalers,ingresses,jobs,leases,limitranges,mutatingwebhookconfigurations,namespaces,networkpolicies,nodes,persistentvolumeclaims,persistentvolumes,poddisruptionbudgets,pods,replicasets,replicationcontrollers,resourcequotas,secrets,services,statefulsets,storageclasses,validatingwebhookconfigurations,volumeattachments"
      --enable-gzip-encoding             Gzip responses when requested by clients via 'Accept-Encoding: gzip' header.
  -h, --help                             Print Help text
      --host string                      Host to expose metrics on. (default "0.0.0.0")
      --kubeconfig string                Absolute path to the kubeconfig file
      --log_backtrace_at traceLocation   when logging hits line file:N, emit a stack trace (default :0)
      --log_dir string                   If non-empty, write log files in this directory
      --log_file string                  If non-empty, use this log file
      --log_file_max_size uint           Defines the maximum size a log file can grow to. Unit is megabytes. If the value is 0, the maximum file size is unlimited. (default 1800)
      --logtostderr                      log to standard error instead of files (default true)
      --metric-allowlist string          Comma-separated list of metrics to be exposed. This list comprises of exact metric names and/or regex patterns. The allowlist and denylist are mutually exclusive.
      --metric-denylist string           Comma-separated list of metrics not to be enabled. This list comprises of exact metric names and/or regex patterns. The allowlist and denylist are mutually exclusive.
      --namespace string                 Comma-separated list of namespaces to be enabled. Defaults to ""
      --pod string                       Name of the pod that contains the kube-state-metrics container. When set, it is expected that --pod and --pod-namespace are both set. Most likely this should be passed via the downward API. This is used for auto-detecting sharding. If set, this has preference over statically configured sharding. This is experimental, it may be removed without notice.
      --pod-namespace string             Name of the namespace of the pod specified by --pod. When set, it is expected that --pod and --pod-namespace are both set. Most likely this should be passed via the downward API. This is used for auto-detecting sharding. If set, this has preference over statically configured sharding. This is experimental, it may be removed without notice.
      --port int                         Port to expose metrics on. (default 8080)
      --shard int32                      The instances shard nominal (zero indexed) within the total number of shards. (default 0)
      --skip_headers                     If true, avoid header prefixes in the log messages
      --skip_log_headers                 If true, avoid headers when opening log files
      --stderrthreshold severity         logs at or above this threshold go to stderr (default 2)
      --telemetry-host string            Host to expose kube-state-metrics self metrics on. (default "0.0.0.0")
      --telemetry-port int               Port to expose kube-state-metrics self metrics on. (default 8081)
      --total-shards int                 The total number of shards. Sharding is disabled when total shards is set to 1. (default 1)
  -v, --v Level                          number for the log level verbosity
      --version                          kube-state-metrics build version information
      --vmodule moduleSpec               comma-separated list of pattern=N settings for file-filtered logging
```