diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9279f54..4768609 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ and this project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/spec/v2.0.0
 
 ### Changed
 
+- default `KUBECONFIG` to `~/.kube/config` in the `kubenix` package
 - removed local `kubectl` and `kubernetes` packages in lieu of those from nixpkgs
 
 ## [0.2.0] - 2023-07-07
diff --git a/pkgs/kubenix.nix b/pkgs/kubenix.nix
index 8cf93d5..7aca704 100644
--- a/pkgs/kubenix.nix
+++ b/pkgs/kubenix.nix
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ runCommand "kubenix"
   cat <<EOF> $out/bin/kubenix
     set -uo pipefail
 
-    export KUBECONFIG=$kubeconfig
+    export KUBECONFIG=''${kubeconfig:-~/.kube/config}
     export KUBECTL_EXTERNAL_DIFF=$diff
 
     function _help() {