How to fix kubectl exec plugin invalid apiVersion client.authentication.k8s.io/v1alpha1 on Apple silicon CPU

in case you are getting this error after updating kubectl

error: exec plugin: invalid apiVersion "client.authentication.k8s.io/v1alpha1"

Double-check the current version

kubectl version

if you are at Major:1 and Minor: 24 (or maybe above, didn’t test that), then you probably need to downgrade to 1.23.6 which is a stable version.

How to do that on Apple Silicon (tested on M1 and M1 Pro, Ventura OS)

cd /tmp
sudo mv /usr/local/bin/kubectl /tmp/kubectl-previous
curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/v1.23.6/bin/darwin/arm64/kubectl"
chmod +x ./kubectl
sudo mv ./kubectl /usr/local/bin/kubectl
sudo chown root: /usr/local/bin/kubectl
kubectl version

In case this makes things worse, restore the old version from /tmp/kubectl-previous

Full instructions here

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