Konnect Gateway Triage

Konnect gateway triage

Goal

Reduce ambiguous "gateway is broken" reports into a concrete failing layer: control plane state, data plane registration, network path, config drift, or traffic behavior.

Default to live inspection first. Use repo config only as intended state, not as proof of deployed behavior.

Tool Selection

• Use the shared kong-konnect MCP server first for current control plane and data plane state.
• Use kongctl-query for concise, read-only checks when CLI output is easier to summarize or filter.
• Preserve the repository's chosen declarative toolchain for fixes and hand off once the failing layer is proven: deck-gateway for Gateway-entity decK repos, terraform-konnect for HCL-managed Konnect Gateway resources, terraform-kong-gateway for self-managed Gateway HCL, and kongctl-declarative for kongctl YAML.
• If live Konnect state matters and kong-konnect MCP is not connected, say so early and continue with CLI or user-provided artifacts.

Prefer to inspect before suggesting restarts, reprovisioning, or config rewrites. Do not let this skill absorb generic upstream application debugging or the declarative mutation workflow itself.

References To Load

Load only the reference file that matches the active branch:

• references/connection-bootstrap.md
  • Load when a data plane is disconnected, never joins, or looks blocked by registration, network, TLS, DNS, or proxy setup.
• references/live-vs-declarative-drift.md
  • Load when the repository's intended state and live Gateway state disagree, or when the operator is mixing runtime symptoms with IaC drift.
• references/traffic-path-vs-control-plane.md
  • Load when control plane and data plane health look good but requests still fail, route incorrectly, or miss the expected plugin behavior.
• references/common-failure-signals.md
  • Load when the operator only has a symptom and you need a fast pattern map before choosing the deeper branch.

Inspection Order

1. Define the observed symptom

Classify the problem up front:

• data plane disconnected or never joined
• config not reaching the data plane
• control plane exists but resources are missing or stale
• traffic fails even though connectivity looks healthy
• labels, tags, or environment boundaries look wrong

Do not investigate all paths at once. Pick the failing operator symptom and follow it.

If the symptom is still vague after this first pass, load references/common-failure-signals.md.

2. Confirm the target control plane

Verify:

• control plane identity and region
• expected cluster type or deployment model
• whether the resource the user cares about belongs to this control plane
• whether the control plane is the intended source of truth for the service, route, plugin, or upstream under discussion

Many "gateway" issues are actually wrong-control-plane issues.

3. Check data plane attachment before config details

For disconnected or stale behavior, inspect data plane registration and current association first.

Look for:

• registration present or absent
• connected versus disconnected status
• last-seen or heartbeat recency
• label or environment mismatches
• version skew that could affect expected behavior

If the data plane is not healthy, stop treating the problem as a config bug. Load references/connection-bootstrap.md when registration or attachment is the active failure branch.

4. Separate network bootstrap from Konnect state

If a data plane will not connect, isolate whether the blocker is:

• bootstrap or registration configuration
• network reachability to Konnect
• TLS or certificate trust
• hostname or DNS mismatch
• firewall or proxy behavior

Do not jump to service or route debugging until the control-plane connection is healthy.

Use references/connection-bootstrap.md for concrete bootstrap-versus-network separation.

5. Compare intended config with live state

Once the control plane and data plane are healthy, inspect the live resources that should be deployed:

• services
• routes
• plugins
• upstreams or targets
• labels used to partition ownership or environment

Prefer the smallest live slice that proves or disproves the suspected drift. If repo config disagrees with live state, call that drift explicitly. If live state is correct but traffic still fails, move to request-path troubleshooting instead of deployment troubleshooting.

Load references/live-vs-declarative-drift.md for repo-versus-live ownership questions, or references/traffic-path-vs-control-plane.md when healthy attachment still does not produce the expected traffic behavior.

6. Classify the failure domain

Use one primary diagnosis:

• wrong control plane or environment
• data plane registration problem
• network or TLS connectivity problem
• config drift or incomplete rollout
• traffic-path issue despite healthy connectivity

This keeps the answer operational instead of producing a mixed list of guesses.

Konnect-Specific Gotchas

• A connected data plane does not prove the intended config is present.
• A declarative repo diff does not prove the live control plane matches it.
• Label mismatches can make healthy resources look missing because operators are inspecting the wrong slice.
• Solving a traffic issue by editing config manually can hide the real drift if a declarative source of truth exists elsewhere.
• Empty or partial resource listings often mean wrong control plane selection, not global platform failure.
• Healthy Gateway attachment plus upstream 4xx or 5xx often means the control plane is no longer the primary failure domain.

Validation Checklist

Before answering, verify that you can state:

• the exact failing gateway symptom
• the control plane in scope
• whether the data plane is attached and healthy
• whether the problem is network, registration, drift, or traffic behavior
• which resource or live-state check supports that conclusion
• which declarative tool skill owns the required fix

Handoffs

• Use kongctl-query for exact resource inspection commands and filtered reads.
• Use deck-gateway, terraform-konnect, terraform-kong-gateway, or kongctl-declarative when the operator wants to fix drift or apply planned gateway changes. Match the repository's current toolchain.
• Use konnect-access-scope if the root problem becomes access to the control plane rather than gateway health.
• Use konnect-observability-triage if the control plane is healthy and the main question is missing analytics or debugging data.
• If routing is correct and the remaining failure is upstream availability, origin TLS, or application behavior, state that Gateway attachment is healthy and hand off to the upstream owner instead of continuing Konnect triage.