k8s-ops

Assists operations engineers in managing K8s cluster resources via kubectl. Supports viewing, troubleshooting, and change operations.

Applicable scenarios:

• View Pod/Deployment/Service/Node and other resource statuses
• View logs and events for troubleshooting
• Execute change operations (scale, rollout restart, apply, etc.)
• Troubleshooting operations (exec, port-forward, describe, etc.)

Setup

Before using this skill, configure your cluster contexts in the table below. Replace the example entries with your actual clusters:

Add all clusters your team manages. The context value should match the output of kubectl config get-contexts.

Execution Flow

Step 1: Environment Check

On first operation, the Agent should automatically check the environment:

1. Run kubectl version --client to confirm kubectl is installed
2. Run kubectl config get-contexts to list configured contexts

If kubectl is not installed: Guide the user to install it (brew install kubectl / apt install kubectl / official documentation).

If the target context is not configured:

• AWS EKS clusters: Guide the user to run aws eks update-kubeconfig --name <cluster-name> --region <region>
• GCP GKE clusters: Guide the user to run gcloud container clusters get-credentials <cluster-name> --region <region> --project <project>, and ensure gke-gcloud-auth-plugin is installed
• Azure AKS clusters: Guide the user to run az aks get-credentials --resource-group <rg> --name <cluster-name>
• Other clusters: Guide the user to download kubeconfig through the corresponding cloud platform console

If already configured: Proceed directly to Step 2.

Step 2: Confirm Operation Target

Confirm the following information with the user (proactively ask if not provided):

1. Target cluster: Match the cluster table above based on the user's description; determine the context
2. Target namespace: Use default if not specified, or infer from the service name
3. Operation content: View, change, troubleshoot, etc.

Step 3: Switch Context

Use the --context parameter to specify the cluster — do not modify the current default context:

kubectl --context <context-name> -n <namespace> <command>

Step 4: Execute Operation

View Operations (execute directly)

View operations carry no risk and can be executed directly:

# View Pod status
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> get pods

# View Deployments
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> get deployments

# View Pod logs
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> logs <pod-name> --tail=100

# View events
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp'

# View resource details
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> describe pod <pod-name>

# View Node status
kubectl --context <ctx> get nodes

# View resource usage
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> top pods

Change Operations (must confirm first)

All change operations must show the user the command to be executed; execution only after user confirmation.

# Scale
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> scale deployment <name> --replicas=<N>

# Rolling restart
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> rollout restart deployment <name>

# Apply configuration
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> apply -f <file>

# Edit ConfigMap
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> edit configmap <name>

# Delete resource (high risk)
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> delete <resource> <name>

Troubleshooting Operations

# Enter a container
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> exec -it <pod-name> -- /bin/sh

# Port forwarding
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> port-forward <pod-name> <local>:<remote>

# View all containers in a Pod
kubectl --context <ctx> -n <ns> get pod <pod-name> -o jsonpath='{.spec.containers[*].name}'

Step 5: Confirm Results

• View operations: Display output directly; format or summarize as needed
• Change operations: Verify results after execution (e.g., check Pod count after scale, check rollout status after restart)
• On failure: Display error information, analyze the cause, and suggest a fix

Security Rules

1. Prohibit executing delete namespace on prod clusters
2. Prohibit executing kubectl drain unless the user explicitly requests and confirms
3. All change operations must show the complete command before execution and wait for user confirmation
4. Batch operations (e.g., scaling multiple deployments simultaneously) must list each one and confirm
5. Prefer using --context parameter to specify the cluster; avoid kubectl config use-context which modifies global state

Examples

Bad

1. Executing changes without confirmation

User: Help me restart payment-service on Production
AI: Rolling restart executed.

Problem: Change operation executed without user confirmation.

2. Modifying global context

kubectl config use-context my-prod-context
kubectl -n prod get pods

Problem: Modified the global context, potentially affecting the user's other terminal sessions. Should use the --context parameter.

3. Executing high-risk operations on prod without confirmation

kubectl --context my-prod-context delete namespace monitoring

Problem: Deleting an entire namespace on a production cluster without confirmation.

Good

1. Confirming before changes

User: Help me restart payment-service on Prod

AI: I will execute the following on the Prod cluster:
    - Cluster: prod-1 (my-prod-context)
    - Namespace: prod
    - Command: kubectl --context my-prod-context -n prod rollout restart deployment payment-service

    Confirm execution?

User: Confirmed

AI: Executed. Checking rollout status...
    deployment "payment-service" successfully rolled out

2. Guiding configuration after environment check

User: Help me check the Pod status on Staging

AI: Let me check the kubectl environment...
    kubectl is installed (v1.28.2)
    But the Staging context was not found. Please run the following command to configure it:

    aws eks update-kubeconfig --name staging-cluster --region <your-region>

    Let me know when configuration is complete, and I will continue.

3. Troubleshooting flow

User: The api-gateway on Staging keeps CrashLoopBackOff

AI: Let me investigate:

    1. Checking Pod status...
       NAME                          READY   STATUS             RESTARTS   AGE
       api-gateway-5d4f6c7b8-x2k9z  0/1     CrashLoopBackOff   5          10m

    2. Checking recent logs...
       Error: failed to connect to database at <ip>:5432

    3. Checking events...
       Back-off restarting failed container

    Analysis: Pod cannot connect to database at <ip>:5432. Recommended checks:
    - Is the database service running normally
    - Is a NetworkPolicy blocking the connection
    - Is the database address correct in the ConfigMap/Secret

Exemptions

Exemption method: /override skill=k8s-ops reason="emergency incident recovery"