managing-infra
Infrastructure patterns for Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm, Kustomize, and GitHub Actions. Use when making K8s architectural decisions, choosing between Helm vs Kustomize, structuring Terraform modules, writing CI/CD workflows, or applying security best practices.
When & Why to Use This Skill
This Claude skill provides expert-level infrastructure patterns and architectural guidance for Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm, Kustomize, and GitHub Actions. It empowers DevOps engineers and SREs to implement scalable Infrastructure as Code (IaC), optimize CI/CD workflows, and enforce security best practices across cloud-native environments, ensuring robust and maintainable deployments.
Use Cases
- Architectural Decision Making: Evaluating and choosing between Helm and Kustomize for Kubernetes manifest management based on project complexity and environment requirements.
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) Development: Structuring and organizing Terraform modules for efficient cloud resource provisioning, lifecycle management, and reusability.
- CI/CD Pipeline Automation: Designing secure GitHub Actions workflows for automated linting, testing, and multi-architecture Docker builds with native ARM support.
- Kubernetes Security Hardening: Applying workload security defaults including non-root users, read-only filesystems, and network policies to ensure production-grade cluster safety.
- Build Process Optimization: Utilizing Makefiles and multi-stage Dockerfiles to streamline container builds and self-documenting build targets.
| name | managing-infra |
|---|---|
| description | Infrastructure patterns for Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm, Kustomize, and GitHub Actions. Use when making K8s architectural decisions, choosing between Helm vs Kustomize, structuring Terraform modules, writing CI/CD workflows, or applying security best practices. |
| user-invocable | false |
| context | fork |
| agent | infra-engineer |
| - Bash(kubectl | *) |
Infrastructure Patterns
When to Use What
| Tool | Use For |
|---|---|
| Raw K8s YAML | Simple deployments, one-off resources |
| Kustomize | Environment variations, overlays without templating |
| Helm | Complex apps, third-party charts, heavy templating |
| Terraform | Cloud resources, infrastructure lifecycle |
| GitHub Actions | CI/CD, automated testing, releases |
| Makefile | Build automation, self-documenting targets |
| Dockerfile | Container builds, multi-stage, multi-arch |
Quick Decisions
Kustomize when: Simple env differences, readable manifests, patching YAML Helm when: Complex templating, third-party charts, release management
K8s Security Defaults
Every workload: non-root user, read-only filesystem, no privilege escalation, dropped capabilities, network policies.
GitHub Actions Patterns
- CI workflow: Lint, test, compile on PRs (run on both x86 + ARM)
- Release workflow: Multi-arch Docker build on tags (native ARM runners)
- Pin actions by SHA, least-privilege permissions
References
- KUBERNETES.md - K8s resource patterns
- TERRAFORM.md - Terraform module patterns
- GITHUB-ACTIONS.md - CI/CD workflow patterns
- MAKEFILE.md - Build automation patterns
- DOCKERFILE.md - Container build patterns
- templates/ - Ready-to-use templates
Commands
kubectl apply -k ./ # Apply kustomize
helm upgrade --install NAME . # Install/upgrade chart
terraform plan && terraform apply