/k8s-manifest-generator

name: k8s-manifest-generator
description: Create production-ready Kubernetes manifests for Deployments, Services, ConfigMaps, and Secrets following best practices and security standards. Use when generating Kubernetes YAML manifests, creating K8s resources, or implementing production-grade Kubernetes configurations.

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

1. **Always set resource requests and limits** - Prevents resource starvation 2. **Implement health checks** - Ensures Kubernetes can manage your application 3. **Use specific image tags** - Avoid unpredictable deployments 4. **Apply security contexts** - Run as non-root, drop capabilities 5. **Use ConfigMaps and Secrets** - Separate config from code 6. **Label everything** - Enables filtering and organization 7. **Follow naming conventions** - Use standard Kubernetes labels 8. **Validate before applying** - Use dry-run and validation tools 9. **Version your manifests** - Keep in Git with version control 10. **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:

1. Store in Git repository 2. Set up CI/CD pipeline for deployment 3. Consider using Helm or Kustomize for templating 4. Implement GitOps with ArgoCD or Flux 5. Add monitoring and observability

Related Skills

• `helm-chart-scaffolding` - For templating and packaging
• `gitops-workflow` - For automated deployments
• `k8s-security-policies` - For advanced security configurations