diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 9279f54..c0c3061 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 `kubernetes.kubeconfig` to `$HOME/.kube/config`
 - removed local `kubectl` and `kubernetes` packages in lieu of those from nixpkgs
 
 ## [0.2.0] - 2023-07-07
diff --git a/modules/k8s.nix b/modules/k8s.nix
index 601ed2e..296fb0a 100644
--- a/modules/k8s.nix
+++ b/modules/k8s.nix
@@ -298,7 +298,7 @@ in
     kubeconfig = mkOption {
       description = "path to kubeconfig file (default: use $KUBECONFIG)";
       type = types.nullOr types.str;
-      default = null;
+      default = "$HOME/.kube/config";
       example = "/run/secrets/kubeconfig";
     };
 
diff --git a/pkgs/kubenix.nix b/pkgs/kubenix.nix
index 8cf93d5..b6b770d 100644
--- a/pkgs/kubenix.nix
+++ b/pkgs/kubenix.nix
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ let
 in
 runCommand "kubenix"
 {
-  kubeconfig = kubernetes.kubeconfig or "";
+  inherit (kubernetes) kubeconfig;
   result = kubernetes.result or "";
 
   # kubectl does some parsing which removes the -I flag so
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ runCommand "kubenix"
   cat <<EOF> $out/bin/kubenix
     set -uo pipefail
 
-    export KUBECONFIG=$kubeconfig
+    export KUBECONFIG=\''${KUBECONFIG:-$kubeconfig}
     export KUBECTL_EXTERNAL_DIFF=$diff
 
     function _help() {