id: service-account
name: Service Account
full-link: /docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/configure-service-account/
tags:
- fundamental
- core-object
short-description: >
  Provides an identity for processes that run in a {% glossary_tooltip text="Pod" term_id="pod" %}.
long-description: >
  When processes inside Pods access the cluster, they are authenticated by the API server as a particular service account, for example, `default`. When you create a Pod, if you do not specify a service account, it is automatically assigned the default service account in the same namespace {% glossary_tooltip text="Namespace" term_id="namespace" %}.