Kubernetes Skills

# Multi-Cluster Kubernetes Management

Cross-cluster operations and context management using kubectl-mcp-server's multi-cluster support.

## Context Management

### List Available Contexts ``` list_contexts_tool() ```

### View Current Context ``` kubeconfig_view() # Shows sanitized kubeconfig ```

### Switch Context CLI: `kubectl-mcp-server context <context-name>`

## Cross-Cluster Operations

All kubectl-mcp-server tools support the `context` parameter:

```python # Get pods from production cluster get_pods(namespace="default", context="production-cluster")

# Get pods from staging cluster get_pods(namespace="default", context="staging-cluster") ```

## Common Multi-Cluster Patterns

### Compare Environments

``` # Compare deployment across clusters compare_namespaces( namespace1="production", namespace2="staging", resource_type="deployment", context="production-cluster" ) ```

### Parallel Queries Query multiple clusters simultaneously:

``` # Production cluster get_pods(namespace="app", context="prod-us-east") get_pods(namespace="app", context="prod-eu-west")

# Development cluster get_pods(namespace="app", context="development") ```

### Cross-Cluster Health Check ``` # Check all clusters for context in ["prod-1", "prod-2", "staging"]: get_nodes(context=context) get_pods(namespace="kube-system", context=context) ```

## Cluster API (CAPI) Management

For managing cluster lifecycle:

### List Managed Clusters ``` capi_clusters_list_tool(namespace="capi-system") ```

### Get Cluster Details ``` capi_cluster_get_tool(name="prod-cluster", namespace="capi-system") ```

### Get Workload Cluster Kubeconfig ``` capi_cluster_kubeconfig_tool(name="prod-cluster", namespace="capi-system") ```

### Machine Management ``` capi_machines_list_tool(namespace="capi-system") capi_machinedeployments_list_tool(namespace="capi-system") ```

### Scale Cluster ``` capi_machinedeployment_scale_tool( name="prod-cluster-md-0", namespace="capi-system", replicas=5 ) ```

See [CONTEXT-SWITCHING.md](CONTEXT-SWITCHING.md) for detailed patterns.

## Multi-Cluster Helm

Deploy charts to specific clusters: ``` install_helm_chart( name="nginx", chart="bitnami/nginx", namespace="web", context="production-cluster" )

list_helm_releases( namespace="web", context="staging-cluster" ) ```

## Multi-Cluster GitOps

### Flux Across Clusters ``` flux_kustomizations_list_tool( namespace="flux-system", context="cluster-1" )

flux_reconcile_tool( kind="kustomization", name="apps", namespace="flux-system", context="cluster-2" ) ```

### ArgoCD Across Clusters ``` argocd_apps_list_tool(namespace="argocd", context="management-cluster") ```

## Federation Patterns

### Secret Synchronization ``` # Read from source cluster get_secrets(namespace="app", context="source-cluster")

# Apply to target cluster (via manifest) apply_manifest(secret_manifest, namespace="app", context="target-cluster") ```

### Cross-Cluster Service Discovery With Cilium ClusterMesh or Istio multi-cluster: ``` cilium_nodes_list_tool(context="cluster-1") istio_proxy_status_tool(context="cluster-2") ```

## Best Practices

1. **Naming Convention**: Use descriptive context names - `prod-us-east-1`, `staging-eu-west-1`

2. **Access Control**: Different kubeconfigs per environment - Prod: Read-only for most users - Dev: Full access for developers

3. **Always Specify Context**: Avoid accidental cross-cluster operations ``` # Explicit is better get_pods(namespace="app", context="production") ```

4. **Cluster Groups**: Organize by purpose - Production: `prod-*` - Staging: `staging-*` - Development: `dev-*`

## Related Skills - [k8s-troubleshoot](../k8s-troubleshoot/SKILL.md) - Debug across clusters - [k8s-gitops](../k8s-gitops/SKILL.md) - GitOps multi-cluster