Managing Kong Mesh

Kong Mesh Skill

Manage Kong Mesh service mesh, dataplanes, traffic policies, gateways, and multi-zone configuration.

Core Helper Functions

#!/bin/bash

KONG_MESH_API="${KONG_MESH_API_URL:-http://localhost:5681}"

km_api() {
    local endpoint="$1"
    shift
    curl -s "$KONG_MESH_API/$endpoint" "$@"
}

MANDATORY: Discovery-First Pattern

Phase 1: Discovery

#!/bin/bash

echo "=== Kong Mesh Version ==="
km_api "" | jq '{version, hostname, tagline, environment}'

echo ""
echo "=== Meshes ==="
km_api "meshes" | jq -r '
    .items[] | "\(.name)\tmTLS: \(.mtls.enabledBackend // "disabled")\tLogging: \(.logging.backends | length // 0) backends"
' | column -t | head -10

echo ""
echo "=== Dataplanes Overview ==="
km_api "mesh-insights" | jq -r '
    .items[] | "\(.name)\tOnline: \(.dataplanesByType.standard.online // 0)\tGateway: \(.dataplanesByType.gateway.online // 0)\tTotal: \(.dataplanesByType.standard.total // 0)"
' | column -t | head -10

echo ""
echo "=== Zones ==="
km_api "zones" | jq -r '
    .items[]? | "\(.name)\tEnabled: \(.enabled)"
' | column -t | head -10

echo ""
echo "=== Global Policies ==="
for policy in trafficpermissions trafficlogs traffictraces trafficroutes timeouts circuitbreakers healthchecks faultinjections retries ratelimits meshgateways meshgatewayroutes; do
    COUNT=$(km_api "$policy" 2>/dev/null | jq '.total // 0')
    [ "$COUNT" -gt 0 ] && echo "$policy: $COUNT"
done

echo ""
echo "=== OPA Policies (Enterprise) ==="
km_api "opapolicies" | jq -r '
    .items[]? | "\(.name)\t\(.mesh)\tEnabled: \(.enabled // true)"
' | column -t 2>/dev/null | head -10

Phase 2: Analysis

#!/bin/bash
MESH="${1:-default}"

echo "=== Mesh Configuration ==="
km_api "meshes/$MESH" | jq '{name, mtls, tracing, logging, metrics, routing}'

echo ""
echo "=== Dataplanes in Mesh ==="
km_api "meshes/$MESH/dataplanes" | jq -r '
    .items[] | "\(.name)\t\(.networking.address)\tService: \(.networking.inbound[0].tags["kuma.io/service"] // "n/a")"
' | column -t | head -15

echo ""
echo "=== Traffic Permissions ==="
km_api "meshes/$MESH/trafficpermissions" | jq -r '
    .items[] | "\(.name)\tSrc: \(.sources[0].match["kuma.io/service"] // "*")\tDst: \(.destinations[0].match["kuma.io/service"] // "*")"
' | column -t | head -15

echo ""
echo "=== Rate Limits ==="
km_api "meshes/$MESH/ratelimits" | jq '
    .items[]? | {name, sources: .sources[0].match, destinations: .destinations[0].match, conf: .conf}
' | head -15

echo ""
echo "=== Mesh Gateways ==="
km_api "meshes/$MESH/meshgateways" | jq '
    .items[]? | {name, selectors: .selectors, conf: .conf}
' | head -15

Output Rules

• TOKEN EFFICIENCY: Target <=50 lines per output
• Use jq to parse Kong Mesh API responses
• Specify mesh context for all policy queries

Safety Rules

• Read-only by default: Use GET endpoints for inspection
• Traffic permission changes affect authorization immediately
• mTLS backend changes can disrupt all mesh communication
• Multi-zone policy propagation affects all connected zones

Output Format

Present results as a structured report:

Managing Kong Mesh Report
═════════════════════════
Resources discovered: [count]

Resource       Status    Key Metric    Issues
──────────────────────────────────────────────
[name]         [ok/warn] [value]       [findings]

Summary: [total] resources | [ok] healthy | [warn] warnings | [crit] critical
Action Items: [list of prioritized findings]

Target ≤50 lines of output. Use tables for multi-resource comparisons.

Anti-Hallucination Rules

1. NEVER assume resource names — always discover via CLI/API in Phase 1 before referencing in Phase 2.
2. NEVER fabricate metric names or dimensions — verify against the service documentation or --help output.
3. NEVER mix CLI commands between service versions — confirm which version/API you are targeting.
4. ALWAYS use the discovery → verify → analyze chain — every resource referenced must have been discovered first.
5. ALWAYS handle empty results gracefully — an empty response is valid data, not an error to retry.

Counter-Rationalizations

Common Pitfalls

• Kong Mesh vs Kuma: Kong Mesh is commercial Kuma; API is compatible but has extra enterprise resources
• OPA policies: Enterprise feature; requires OPA sidecar configuration
• Default deny: Without traffic permissions, mesh defaults to deny all
• Zone CP vs Global CP: Policies are managed at global CP and synced to zone CPs
• Gateway vs Gateway builtin: MeshGateway is built-in; differs from Kong Gateway integration