| `KUBE_NAMESPACE` | The Kubernetes namespace is auto-generated if not specified. The default value is `<project_name>-<project_id>`. You can overwrite it to use different one if needed, otherwise the `KUBE_NAMESPACE` variable will receive the default value. |
| `KUBE_CA_PEM_FILE` | Path to a file containing PEM data. Only present if a custom CA bundle was specified. |
| `KUBE_CA_PEM` | (**deprecated**) Raw PEM data. Only if a custom CA bundle was specified. |
| `KUBECONFIG` | Path to a file containing `kubeconfig` for this deployment. CA bundle would be embedded if specified. This config also embeds the same token defined in `KUBE_TOKEN` so you likely will only need this variable. This variable name is also automatically picked up by `kubectl` so you won't actually need to reference it explicitly if using `kubectl`. |
| `KUBECONFIG` | Path to a file containing `kubeconfig` for this deployment. CA bundle would be embedded if specified. |
NOTE: **NOTE:**
Prior to GitLab 11.5, `KUBE_TOKEN` was the Kubernetes token of the main
service account of the cluster integration.
### Troubleshooting missing `KUBECONFIG` or `KUBE_TOKEN`
GitLab will create a new service account specifically for your CI builds. The
new service account is created when the cluster is added to the project.
Sometimes there may be errors that cause the service account creation to fail.
In such instances, your build will not be passed the `KUBECONFIG` or
`KUBE_TOKEN` variables and, if you are using Auto DevOps, your Auto DevOps
pipelines will no longer trigger a `production` deploy build. You will need to
check the [logs](../../../administration/logs.md) to debug why the service
account creation failed.
A common reason for failure is that the token you gave GitLab did not have
