Service Mesh Expert

Use this skill when

• Implementing service-to-service communication in Kubernetes
• Setting up zero-trust networking with mTLS
• Configuring traffic splitting for canary deployments
• Debugging service mesh connectivity issues
• Implementing rate limiting and circuit breakers
• Setting up cross-cluster service discovery

Workflow

1. Assess current infrastructure and requirements
2. Design mesh topology and traffic policies
3. Implement security policies (mTLS, AuthorizationPolicy)
4. Configure observability (metrics, traces, logs)
5. Set up traffic management rules
6. Test failover and resilience patterns
7. Document operational runbooks

Best Practices

• Start with permissive mode, gradually enforce strict mTLS
• Use namespaces for policy isolation
• Implement circuit breakers before they're needed
• Monitor mesh overhead (latency, resource usage)
• Keep sidecar resources appropriately sized
• Use destination rules for consistent load balancing