diff --git a/util/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/util/ClientBuilder.java b/util/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/util/ClientBuilder.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6d6063e019
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util/src/main/java/io/kubernetes/client/util/ClientBuilder.java
@@ -0,0 +1,242 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+ */
+package io.kubernetes.client.util;
+
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileInputStream;
+import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
+import java.io.FileReader;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.io.Reader;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+
+import javax.net.ssl.KeyManager;
+
+import org.apache.commons.codec.binary.Base64;
+import org.apache.log4j.Logger;
+
+import okio.ByteString;
+import io.kubernetes.client.ApiClient;
+import io.kubernetes.client.util.Config;
+import io.kubernetes.client.util.KubeConfig;
+
+public class ClientBuilder {
+
+	private boolean verifyingSsl = false;
+	private String basePath = null;
+	private File certificateAuthorityFile = null;
+	private String certificateAuthorityData = null;
+	private String apiKey = null;
+	private String userName = null;
+	private String password = null;
+	private KeyManager[] keyMgrs = null;
+	private String accessToken = null;
+	private String apiKeyPrefix = null;
+	private KubeConfig kubeConfig = null;
+	private ApiClient client = null;
+
+	private static final Logger log = Logger.getLogger(Config.class);
+
+	public String getUserName() {
+		return userName;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setUserName(String userName) {
+		this.userName = userName;
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public String getPassword() {
+		return password;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setPassword(String password) {
+		this.password = password;
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public String getApiKey() {
+		return apiKey;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setApiKey(String apiKey) {
+		this.apiKey = apiKey;
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public String getBasePath() {
+		return basePath;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setBasePath(String basePath) {
+		this.basePath = basePath;
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public File getCertificateAuthorityFile() {
+		return certificateAuthorityFile;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setCertificateAuthority(File certificateAuthorityFile) {
+		this.certificateAuthorityFile = certificateAuthorityFile;
+		this.verifyingSsl = true;
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public String getCertificateAuthorityData() {
+		return certificateAuthorityData;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setCertificateAuthority(String certificateAuthorityData) {
+		this.certificateAuthorityData = certificateAuthorityData;
+		this.verifyingSsl = true;
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setClusterMode() throws IOException {
+		this.client = Config.fromCluster();
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setKubeConfig(KubeConfig config) {
+		this.kubeConfig = config;
+		if( this.kubeConfig !=null) {
+			this.client = Config.fromConfig(this.kubeConfig);
+		}
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setDefaultKubeConfigMode() throws FileNotFoundException {
+		this.client = Config.fromConfig(KubeConfig.loadDefaultKubeConfig());
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setKubeConfig(File kubeFile) throws FileNotFoundException {
+		this.kubeConfig = KubeConfig.loadKubeConfig(new FileReader(kubeFile));
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setKubeConfig(Reader input) {
+		this.kubeConfig = KubeConfig.loadKubeConfig(input);
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setKubeConfig(InputStream stream) {
+		this.kubeConfig = KubeConfig.loadKubeConfig(new InputStreamReader(stream));
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public KeyManager[] getKeyMgrs() {
+		return keyMgrs;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setKeyMgrs(KeyManager[] keyMgrs) {
+		this.keyMgrs = keyMgrs;
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public boolean isVerifyingSsl() {
+		return verifyingSsl;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setVerifyingSsl(boolean verifyingSsl) {
+		this.verifyingSsl = verifyingSsl;
+		return this;
+	}
+
+
+	public ClientBuilder setDefaultClientMode() throws IOException {
+		client = Config.defaultClient();
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public String getApiKeyPrefix() {
+		return apiKeyPrefix;
+	}
+
+	public ClientBuilder setApiKeyPrefix(String apiKeyPrefix) {
+		this.apiKeyPrefix = apiKeyPrefix;
+		return this;
+	}
+
+	public ApiClient build() throws FileNotFoundException {
+		if(client == null) {
+			client = new ApiClient();
+		}
+
+		String localBasePath = client.getBasePath();
+
+		if (basePath != null) {
+			if(basePath.endsWith("/")) {
+				basePath = basePath.substring(0, basePath.length() - 1);
+			}
+			client.setBasePath(basePath);
+		}else {
+			if (localBasePath.length() == 0) {
+				client.setBasePath("http://localhost:8080");
+			}
+		}
+
+		if(keyMgrs != null) {
+			client.setKeyManagers(keyMgrs);
+		}
+
+		if(userName != null){
+			client.setUsername(userName);
+		}
+
+		if(password != null){
+			client.setPassword(password);
+		}
+
+		if(( userName != null )&&(password != null)) {
+			final String usernameAndPassword = userName + ":" + password;
+			client.setApiKeyPrefix("Basic");
+			client.setApiKey(ByteString.of(usernameAndPassword.getBytes(Charset.forName("ISO-8859-1"))).base64());
+		}
+
+		if(accessToken != null) {
+			if (apiKeyPrefix == null){
+				client.setApiKeyPrefix("Bearer");
+			}
+			client.setAccessToken(accessToken);
+		}
+
+		if(apiKeyPrefix != null) {
+			client.setApiKeyPrefix(apiKeyPrefix);
+		}
+
+		if(apiKey != null) {
+			if (apiKeyPrefix == null){
+				client.setApiKeyPrefix("Bearer");
+			}
+			client.setApiKey(apiKey);
+		}
+
+		client.setVerifyingSsl(verifyingSsl);
+
+		if(certificateAuthorityFile != null) {
+			client.setSslCaCert(new FileInputStream(certificateAuthorityFile));
+		}
+
+		if(certificateAuthorityData != null) {
+			byte[] bytes = Base64.decodeBase64(certificateAuthorityData);
+			client.setSslCaCert(new ByteArrayInputStream(bytes));
+		}
+
+		return client;
+	}
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/util/src/test/java/io/kubernetes/client/util/ClientBuilderTest.java b/util/src/test/java/io/kubernetes/client/util/ClientBuilderTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0027cbc65f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util/src/test/java/io/kubernetes/client/util/ClientBuilderTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,253 @@
+/*
+Copyright 2017 The Kubernetes Authors.
+Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+You may obtain a copy of the License at
+    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+limitations under the License.
+ */
+package io.kubernetes.client.util;
+
+import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
+import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
+import java.io.FileWriter;
+import java.io.IOException;
+import java.nio.charset.Charset;
+
+import javax.net.ssl.KeyManager;
+
+import org.junit.Before;
+import org.junit.Rule;
+import org.junit.Test;
+import org.junit.contrib.java.lang.system.EnvironmentVariables;
+import org.junit.rules.TemporaryFolder;
+
+import io.kubernetes.client.ApiClient;
+import okio.ByteString;
+
+/**
+ * Tests for the ConfigBuilder helper class
+ */
+public class ClientBuilderTest {
+	String basePath = "http://localhost";
+	String apiKey = "ABCD";
+	String userName = "userName";
+	String password = "password";
+	String apiKeyPrefix = "Bearer";
+	String certificateAuthorityData = null;
+	String certificateAuthorityFile = "/home/user/.minikube/ca.crt";
+	String clientCertData = null;
+	String clientCertFile = "/home/user/.minikube/apiserver.crt";
+	String clientKeyData = null;
+	String clientKeyFile = "/home/user/.minikube/apiserver.key";
+	String algo = "RSA";
+	String passphrase = "";
+	String keyStoreFile = null ;
+	String keyStorePassphrase = null;
+	KeyManager[] keyMgrs =null;
+
+	@Rule
+	public final EnvironmentVariables environmentVariables
+	= new EnvironmentVariables();
+
+	@Rule
+	public TemporaryFolder folder= new TemporaryFolder();
+
+
+	@Test
+	public void testDefaultClientNothingPresent() {
+		environmentVariables.set("HOME", "/non-existent");
+		ApiClient client;
+		try {
+			client = (new ClientBuilder())
+					.setDefaultClientMode()
+					.build();
+			assertEquals("http://localhost:8080", client.getBasePath());
+		} catch (IOException e) {
+			// TODO Auto-generated catch block
+			e.printStackTrace();
+		}
+	}
+
+	public static String HOME_CONFIG = 
+			"apiVersion: v1\n" +
+					"clusters:\n" +
+					"- cluster:\n" +
+					"    server: http://home.dir.com\n" +
+					"  name: foo\n" +
+					"contexts:\n" + 
+					"- context:\n" +
+					"    cluster: foo\n" + 
+					"  name: foo-context\n" +
+					"current-context: foo-context\n";
+
+	public static String KUBECONFIG = 
+			"apiVersion: v1\n" +
+					"clusters:\n" +
+					"- cluster:\n" +
+					"    server: http://kubeconfig.dir.com\n" +
+					"  name: foo\n" +
+					"contexts:\n" + 
+					"- context:\n" +
+					"    cluster: foo\n" + 
+					"  name: foo-context\n" +
+					"current-context: foo-context\n";
+
+	File config = null;
+	File dir = null;
+	File kubedir = null;
+	File configFile = null;
+
+	@Before
+	public void setUp() throws IOException {
+		dir = folder.newFolder();
+		kubedir = new File(dir, ".kube");
+		kubedir.mkdir();
+		config = new File(kubedir, "config");
+		FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(config);
+		writer.write(HOME_CONFIG);
+		writer.flush();
+		writer.close();
+
+		configFile = folder.newFile("config");
+		writer = new FileWriter(configFile);
+		writer.write(KUBECONFIG);
+		writer.flush();
+		writer.close();
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testDefaultClientHomeDir() {
+		try {
+			environmentVariables.set("HOME", dir.getCanonicalPath());
+			ApiClient client = new ClientBuilder()
+					.setDefaultClientMode()
+					.build();
+			assertEquals("http://home.dir.com", client.getBasePath());
+		} catch (Exception ex) {
+			ex.printStackTrace();
+			fail("Unexpected exception: " + ex);
+		}
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testDefaultClientKubeConfig() {
+		try {
+			environmentVariables.set("KUBECONFIG", configFile.getCanonicalPath());
+			ApiClient client = new ClientBuilder()
+					.setDefaultClientMode()
+					.build();
+			assertEquals("http://kubeconfig.dir.com", client.getBasePath());
+		} catch (Exception ex) {
+			ex.printStackTrace();
+			fail("Unexpected exception: " + ex);
+		}
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testDefaultClientPrecedence() {
+		try {
+			environmentVariables.set("HOME", dir.getCanonicalPath());
+			environmentVariables.set("KUBECONFIG", configFile.getCanonicalPath());
+			ApiClient client = new ClientBuilder()
+					.setDefaultClientMode()
+					.build();
+			// $KUBECONFIG should take precedence over $HOME/.kube/config
+			assertEquals("http://kubeconfig.dir.com", client.getBasePath());
+		} catch (Exception ex) {
+			ex.printStackTrace();
+			fail("Unexpected exception: " + ex);
+		}
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testUserNamePasswordClientBuilder() {
+		try {
+			ApiClient client = (new ClientBuilder())
+					.setBasePath(basePath)
+					.setUserName(userName)
+					.setPassword(password)
+					.build();
+			assertEquals(userName, ((io.kubernetes.client.auth.HttpBasicAuth)client.getAuthentication("BasicAuth")).getUsername());
+			assertEquals(password, ((io.kubernetes.client.auth.HttpBasicAuth)client.getAuthentication("BasicAuth")).getPassword());
+			assertEquals(basePath, client.getBasePath());
+			assertEquals(false, client.isVerifyingSsl());
+			assertEquals("Basic", ((io.kubernetes.client.auth.ApiKeyAuth)client.getAuthentications().get("BearerToken")).getApiKeyPrefix());
+			assertEquals(ByteString.of((userName+":"+password).getBytes(Charset.forName("ISO-8859-1"))).base64(), ((io.kubernetes.client.auth.ApiKeyAuth)client.getAuthentications().get("BearerToken")).getApiKey());
+		}
+		catch (Exception e) {
+			e.printStackTrace();
+			fail("Unexpected exception: " + e);
+		}
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testApiKeyConfigbuilder() {
+		ApiClient client = null;
+		try {
+			client = (new ClientBuilder())
+					.setBasePath(basePath)
+					.setApiKeyPrefix(apiKeyPrefix)
+					.setApiKey(apiKey)
+					.build();
+		} catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
+			// TODO Auto-generated catch block
+			e.printStackTrace();
+		}
+		assertEquals(basePath, client.getBasePath());
+		assertEquals(false, client.isVerifyingSsl());
+		assertEquals(apiKeyPrefix, ((io.kubernetes.client.auth.ApiKeyAuth)client.getAuthentications().get("BearerToken")).getApiKeyPrefix());
+		assertEquals( apiKey, ((io.kubernetes.client.auth.ApiKeyAuth)client.getAuthentications().get("BearerToken")).getApiKey());
+		assertEquals(null,((io.kubernetes.client.auth.HttpBasicAuth)client.getAuthentications().get("BasicAuth")).getUsername());
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testKeyMgrANDCertConfigBUilder() {
+		// will not fail even if file not found exception occurs for clientCertFile
+		try{
+			keyMgrs = SSLUtils.keyManagers(clientCertData, clientCertFile, clientKeyData, clientKeyFile, algo, passphrase, keyStoreFile, keyStorePassphrase);
+			//by default verify ssl is false
+			ApiClient client = (new ClientBuilder())
+					.setBasePath(basePath)
+					.setKeyMgrs(keyMgrs)
+					.setCertificateAuthority(certificateAuthorityData)
+					.setVerifyingSsl(true)
+					.build();
+			assertEquals(basePath, client.getBasePath());
+			assertEquals(true, client.isVerifyingSsl());
+			//below assert is not appropriate
+			//assertSame(keyMgrs, client.getKeyManagers());
+		}
+		catch(Exception e){
+			//e.printStackTrace();
+		}
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testBasePath() throws IOException {
+		ApiClient client = null ;
+			client = (new ClientBuilder())
+					.setUserName("user")
+					.build();
+
+		environmentVariables.set("HOME", "/non-existent");
+		client = (new ClientBuilder())
+				.setDefaultClientMode()
+				.setUserName("user")
+				.build();
+		assertEquals("http://localhost:8080", client.getBasePath());
+		environmentVariables.set("KUBECONFIG", configFile.getCanonicalPath());
+		client = new ClientBuilder()
+				.setDefaultClientMode()
+				.setBasePath("http://testkubeconfig.dir.com")
+				.build();
+		assertEquals("http://testkubeconfig.dir.com", client.getBasePath());		
+	}
+}