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Field Selectors

Field selectors let you select Kubernetes objects based on the value of one or more resource fields. Here are some examples of field selector queries:

  • metadata.name=my-service
  • metadata.namespace!=default
  • status.phase=Pending

This kubectl command selects all Pods for which the value of the status.phase field is Running:

kubectl get pods --field-selector status.phase=Running

Note:

Field selectors are essentially resource filters. By default, no selectors/filters are applied, meaning that all resources of the specified type are selected. This makes the kubectl queries kubectl get pods and kubectl get pods --field-selector "" equivalent.

Supported fields

Supported field selectors vary by Kubernetes resource type. All resource types support the metadata.name and metadata.namespace fields. Using unsupported field selectors produces an error. For example:

kubectl get ingress --field-selector foo.bar=baz

Error from server (BadRequest): Unable to find "ingresses" that match label selector "", field selector "foo.bar=baz": "foo.bar" is not a known field selector: only "metadata.name", "metadata.namespace"

List of supported fields

KindFields
Podspec.nodeName
spec.restartPolicy
spec.schedulerName
spec.serviceAccountName
spec.hostNetwork
status.phase
status.podIP
status.podIPs
status.nominatedNodeName
EventinvolvedObject.kind
involvedObject.namespace
involvedObject.name
involvedObject.uid
involvedObject.apiVersion
involvedObject.resourceVersion
involvedObject.fieldPath
reason
reportingComponent
source
type
Secrettype
Namespacestatus.phase
ReplicaSetstatus.replicas
ReplicationControllerstatus.replicas
Jobstatus.successful
Nodespec.unschedulable
CertificateSigningRequestspec.signerName

Custom resources fields

All custom resource types support the metadata.name and metadata.namespace fields.

Additionally, the spec.versions[*].selectableFields field of a CustomResourceDefinition declares which other fields in a custom resource may be used in field selectors. See selectable fields for custom resources for more information about how to use field selectors with CustomResourceDefinitions.

Supported operators

You can use the =, ==, and != operators with field selectors (= and == mean the same thing). This kubectl command, for example, selects all Kubernetes Services that aren't in the default namespace:

kubectl get services  --all-namespaces --field-selector metadata.namespace!=default

Note:

Set-based operators (in, notin, exists) are not supported for field selectors.

Chained selectors

As with label and other selectors, field selectors can be chained together as a comma-separated list. This kubectl command selects all Pods for which the status.phase does not equal Running and the spec.restartPolicy field equals Always:

kubectl get pods --field-selector=status.phase!=Running,spec.restartPolicy=Always

Multiple resource types

You can use field selectors across multiple resource types. This kubectl command selects all Statefulsets and Services that are not in the default namespace:

kubectl get statefulsets,services --all-namespaces --field-selector metadata.namespace!=default

Last modified November 06, 2025 at 12:00 AM PST: Add missing status.podIPs (62da17b94e)