Balanced Variant (Recommended)

~47 MB: The default for daily debugging.

The default and recommended choice for nearly all Kubernetes troubleshooting tasks.

When to Use Balanced

• Debugging running application pods
• Daily Kubernetes workflows and incident response
• Process tracing, network inspection, system diagnostics
• When in doubt, start here

Quick Usage

kubectl debug my-pod -it --image=ghcr.io/ibtisam-iq/debugbox

Balanced is the default: no variant tag needed.

→ All tag formats | Kubernetes usage | Docker usage

What's Included

Balanced includes all lite tools plus additional packages for system debugging, process inspection, TLS inspection, and Kubernetes workflows.

→ Complete tool list | Usage examples

Key additions over lite:

• Shell & Editors: bash, vim, less
• TLS/SSL: openssl (certificate inspection, TLS debugging)
• Process Tools: strace, lsof, htop, ps, top
• Network Advanced: tcpdump, socat, mtr
• Kubernetes Helpers: kubectx, kubens
• Version Control: git
• Compression: tar, gzip

Shell Helpers

Balanced includes 10 custom shell helpers for rapid debugging:

→ Complete shell helper reference with examples

Quick reference:

• json() / yaml(): Pretty-print data
• ports() / connections(): Socket inspection
• routes(): Display routing table
• k8s-info(): Current Kubernetes context
• sniff() / sniff-http() / sniff-dns(): Packet capture shortcuts
• cert-check(): TLS certificate inspection

When to Switch

Downgrade to Lite Variant? Save ~32 MB if you only need basic connectivity.

Upgrade to Power Variant? Need packet analysis, network scanning, or routing tools.

→ Variants Overview | Real-world Examples | Troubleshooting