Which Kubernetes version k3sm tracks, and how to read the live pin so this page cannot silently drift.

Read the Live Pin#

The authoritative version is what the binary reports and what the conformance register records; a number written into prose can go stale. Always read the live values:

k3sm version    # prints the k3sm build version + the embedded Kubernetes control-plane pin

The machine-authoritative Kubernetes pin is the shipped control-plane pin (executor.DefaultKubeVersion), which release tooling compares against the version the project has triaged its conformance notes against. When a pin bump lands, that tooling updates the register. Treat that pin, and k3sm version, as the source of truth over this page.

Current Skew (Point-in-Time)#

At the time of writing:

Control plane (embedded kube-apiserver / KCM / scheduler): DefaultKubeVersion v1.36.2.
Client libraries (k8s.io/api, k8s.io/client-go): v0.35.0.

The one-minor skew between the control-plane pin and the client-go line is expected. If the numbers here disagree with k3sm version, the live output wins. A future pin bump moves the register and the binary before this prose catches up.

Compatibility#

Standard kubectl and client-go clients within a minor of the control-plane pin work normally, since the API surface is a real upstream apiserver (see Concepts). The divergences are on the node side, not the API version.

Next#

Upgrade covers moving to a new k3sm release.
kubectl access covers client setup.