Kubernetes Manifest Generator
Step-by-step guidance for creating production-ready Kubernetes manifests including Deployments, Services, ConfigMaps, Secrets, and PersistentVolumeClaims.
Purpose
This skill provides comprehensive guidance for generating well-structured, secure, and production-ready Kubernetes manifests following cloud-native best practices and Kubernetes conventions.
When to Use This Skill
Use this skill when you need to:
- Create new Kubernetes Deployment manifests
- Define Service resources for network connectivity
- Generate ConfigMap and Secret resources for configuration management
- Create PersistentVolumeClaim manifests for stateful workloads
- Follow Kubernetes best practices and naming conventions
- Implement resource limits, health checks, and security contexts
- Design manifests for multi-environment deployments
Detailed patterns and worked examples
Detailed pattern documentation lives in references/details.md. Read that file when the navigation tier above is insufficient.
Best Practices Summary
- Always set resource requests and limits - Prevents resource starvation
- Implement health checks - Ensures Kubernetes can manage your application
- Use specific image tags - Avoid unpredictable deployments
- Apply security contexts - Run as non-root, drop capabilities
- Use ConfigMaps and Secrets - Separate config from code
- Label everything - Enables filtering and organization
- Follow naming conventions - Use standard Kubernetes labels
- Validate before applying - Use dry-run and validation tools
- Version your manifests - Keep in Git with version control
- Document with annotations - Add context for other developers
Troubleshooting
Pods not starting:
- Check image pull errors:
kubectl describe pod <pod-name> - Verify resource availability:
kubectl get nodes - Check events:
kubectl get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp'
Service not accessible:
- Verify selector matches pod labels:
kubectl get endpoints <service-name> - Check service type and port configuration
- Test from within cluster:
kubectl run debug --rm -it --image=busybox -- sh
ConfigMap/Secret not loading:
- Verify names match in Deployment
- Check namespace
- Ensure resources exist:
kubectl get configmap,secret
Next Steps
After creating manifests:
- Store in Git repository
- Set up CI/CD pipeline for deployment
- Consider using Helm or Kustomize for templating
- Implement GitOps with ArgoCD or Flux
- Add monitoring and observability
Related Skills
helm-chart-scaffolding- For templating and packaginggitops-workflow- For automated deploymentsk8s-security-policies- For advanced security configurations
