Managing Kuma

Kuma Service Mesh Skill

Manage Kuma service mesh, dataplanes, traffic policies, and multi-zone configuration.

Core Helper Functions

#!/bin/bash

KUMA_API="${KUMA_API_URL:-http://localhost:5681}"

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

# Kubernetes mode helper
kuma_k8s() {
    local resource="$1" ns="${2:---all-namespaces}"
    if [ "$ns" = "--all-namespaces" ]; then
        kubectl get "$resource" -A -o json 2>/dev/null
    else
        kubectl get "$resource" -n "$ns" -o json 2>/dev/null
    fi
}

MANDATORY: Discovery-First Pattern

Phase 1: Discovery

#!/bin/bash

echo "=== Kuma Version & Mode ==="
kuma_api "" | jq '{version, hostname, tagline, environment}'

echo ""
echo "=== Meshes ==="
kuma_api "meshes" | jq -r '
    .items[] | "\(.name)\tBackend: \(.mtls.backends[0].name // "none")\tmTLS: \(.mtls.enabledBackend // "disabled")"
' | column -t | head -10

echo ""
echo "=== Dataplanes ==="
kuma_api "dataplanes" | jq -r '
    .items[] | "\(.name)\t\(.mesh)\t\(.networking.address // "n/a")\t\(.networking.inbound[0].tags["kuma.io/service"] // "n/a")"
' | column -t | head -20

echo ""
echo "=== Dataplane Health ==="
kuma_api "mesh-insights" | jq -r '
    .items[] | "\(.name)\tOnline: \(.dataplanesByType.standard.online // 0)\tOffline: \(.dataplanesByType.standard.offline // 0)\tTotal: \(.dataplanesByType.standard.total // 0)"
' | column -t | head -10

echo ""
echo "=== Zones (Multi-Zone) ==="
kuma_api "zones" | jq -r '
    .items[]? | "\(.name)\t\(.enabled)"
' | column -t 2>/dev/null | head -10

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

Phase 2: Analysis

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

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

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

echo ""
echo "=== Traffic Routes ==="
kuma_api "meshes/$MESH/trafficroutes" | jq '
    .items[] | {name, sources: .sources, destinations: .destinations, conf: .conf}
' | head -20

echo ""
echo "=== Circuit Breakers ==="
kuma_api "meshes/$MESH/circuitbreakers" | jq '
    .items[]? | {name, sources: .sources[0].match, destinations: .destinations[0].match, conf: .conf}
' | head -15

echo ""
echo "=== Health Checks ==="
kuma_api "meshes/$MESH/healthchecks" | jq -r '
    .items[]? | "\(.name)\tInterval: \(.conf.interval)\tThreshold: \(.conf.unhealthyThreshold)"
' | column -t | head -10

Output Rules

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

Safety Rules

• Read-only by default: Use GET endpoints for inspection
• Traffic permission changes affect service communication immediately
• mTLS mode changes can break all mesh traffic if backends are misconfigured
• Multi-zone policy changes propagate to all zones

Output Format

Present results as a structured report:

Managing Kuma 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

• Universal vs Kubernetes: API and resource formats differ between modes
• Default mesh: Resources without explicit mesh belong to the default mesh
• Traffic permission deny-by-default: Without permissions, services cannot communicate
• Zone sync: Multi-zone deployments sync policies from global to zone control planes
• Dataplane tokens: Universal mode requires tokens for dataplane authentication