Amazon EKS Docs

EKS answers drift with every release and generic Kubernetes advice skips its AWS-specific control plane, IAM and networking, so ground each answer in the live docs at https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/userguide/, not memory, and link the exact page behind every claim.

Route core Kubernetes API behavior with no EKS angle to kubernetes-docs, AWS CLI install and global options to aws-cli-docs, IAM policy language to aws-iam-docs (IRSA and access entries stay here), ECS or Lambda deployments to aws-ecs-docs or aws-lambda-docs, and Helm chart authoring to helm-docs unless it concerns EKS add-ons.

Workflow

1. Locate the question in references/topic-map.md, a selective index of docs entry points. Done when each part of the question maps to a section of the map, or you have noted that none fits.
2. Search docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest with the user's exact terms plus EKS vocabulary such as managed node group, Fargate profile, IRSA, access entry, EKS Auto Mode, or VPC CNI, starting from the map's pages and the Routing rules below. Done when you hold the one page that most directly answers each part.
3. Read each page down to the relevant section. Done when you have read the passage behind every claim you will make. When a page has moved, been renamed, or stops short, say so and link the nearest authoritative pages.
4. Answer with the direct answer first, each docs link beside the claim it supports, and YAML, eksctl configs or commands only when the user asks or the page needs them. Mark any conclusion that joins several pages as Inference:. Done when every claim cites a specific page, not the docs home.

Routing

• API parameters: the API reference at https://docs.aws.amazon.com/eks/latest/APIReference/Welcome.html.
• Node issues: tell managed node groups, self-managed nodes, Fargate, and Auto Mode apart.
• Auth: the access entries and IRSA pages, before legacy aws-auth ConfigMap guidance.
• Networking: the VPC CNI, security group, and load balancer controller pages together.
• Storage: the EKS page for the relevant CSI driver (EBS, EFS, FSx, or S3).
• Upgrades: the Kubernetes version lifecycle on EKS, before generic kubectl upgrade advice.
• Kubernetes resource YAML: verify core behavior with kubernetes-docs, keeping EKS-specific constraints from these docs.
• aws eks syntax: cross-check aws-cli-docs.

Gotchas

• EKS manages the control plane; self-managed kubeadm cluster procedures do not apply to it.
• IRSA grants pods permissions through their service account, separate from the node instance profile.
• Access entries are the documented path for cluster access, ahead of aws-auth ConfigMap changes.
• Load balancers and the VPC CNI depend on the documented subnet tagging.
• Fargate has its own networking constraints; keep them apart from node group behavior.