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home / skills / jeremylongshore / claude-code-plugins-plus-skills / istio-service-mesh-config

istio-service-mesh-config skill

/skills/02-devops-advanced/istio-service-mesh-config

This skill provides automated guidance and production-ready Istio service mesh configurations for DevOps advanced tasks.

npx playbooks add skill jeremylongshore/claude-code-plugins-plus-skills --skill istio-service-mesh-config

Review the files below or copy the command above to add this skill to your agents.

Files (1)
SKILL.md
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---
name: "istio-service-mesh-config"
description: |
  Configure istio service mesh config operations. Auto-activating skill for DevOps Advanced.
  Triggers on: istio service mesh config, istio service mesh config
  Part of the DevOps Advanced skill category. Use when configuring systems or services. Trigger with phrases like "istio service mesh config", "istio config", "istio".
allowed-tools: "Read, Write, Edit, Bash(cmd:*), Grep"
version: 1.0.0
license: MIT
author: "Jeremy Longshore <[email protected]>"
---

# Istio Service Mesh Config

## Overview

This skill provides automated assistance for istio service mesh config tasks within the DevOps Advanced domain.

## When to Use

This skill activates automatically when you:
- Mention "istio service mesh config" in your request
- Ask about istio service mesh config patterns or best practices
- Need help with advanced devops skills covering kubernetes, terraform, advanced ci/cd, monitoring, and infrastructure as code.

## Instructions

1. Provides step-by-step guidance for istio service mesh config
2. Follows industry best practices and patterns
3. Generates production-ready code and configurations
4. Validates outputs against common standards

## Examples

**Example: Basic Usage**
Request: "Help me with istio service mesh config"
Result: Provides step-by-step guidance and generates appropriate configurations


## Prerequisites

- Relevant development environment configured
- Access to necessary tools and services
- Basic understanding of devops advanced concepts


## Output

- Generated configurations and code
- Best practice recommendations
- Validation results


## Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Solution |
|-------|-------|----------|
| Configuration invalid | Missing required fields | Check documentation for required parameters |
| Tool not found | Dependency not installed | Install required tools per prerequisites |
| Permission denied | Insufficient access | Verify credentials and permissions |


## Resources

- Official documentation for related tools
- Best practices guides
- Community examples and tutorials

## Related Skills

Part of the **DevOps Advanced** skill category.
Tags: kubernetes, terraform, helm, monitoring, iac

Overview

This skill automates configuration tasks for Istio service mesh in production and staging environments. It provides step-by-step guidance, generates configuration snippets and manifests, and surfaces validation feedback to reduce misconfiguration risk. Use it to streamline Istio setup, routing, security, and observability tasks within DevOps workflows.

How this skill works

The skill inspects requested Istio configuration goals (traffic management, mTLS, telemetry, sidecar injection, gateway routing) and produces tailored YAML manifests, Helm values, or Terraform snippets. It applies industry best practices, runs checks for common errors, and returns actionable fixes and validation messages. Outputs are ready to copy into CI/CD pipelines or further customize for your cluster.

When to use it

  • Setting up Istio in a new Kubernetes cluster
  • Configuring traffic routing, gateways, VirtualServices, and DestinationRules
  • Enabling or validating mutual TLS and authorization policies
  • Generating Helm values or Terraform snippets for automated deployments
  • Adding observability: metrics, tracing, and sidecar telemetry

Best practices

  • Enable and validate automatic sidecar injection per namespace, not cluster-wide, to reduce blast radius
  • Use DestinationRule subsets and stability retries for gradual rollouts and canary releases
  • Enforce mTLS at namespace or mesh level and minimize permissive modes in production
  • Keep Gateway and VirtualService responsibilities separated: Gateway for ingress, VirtualService for routing rules
  • Validate generated manifests with kubectl --dry-run=client/server and istioctl analyze before applying

Example use cases

  • Generate a Gateway + VirtualService pair for blue/green deployments with weighted traffic and retries
  • Create a PeerAuthentication and AuthorizationPolicy to require mTLS for a service mesh segment
  • Produce Helm values and a Terraform module snippet to automate Istio installation in CI/CD
  • Audit existing Istio manifests and return a list of issues and suggested fixes using istioctl analysis output
  • Configure telemetry and tracing annotations for Prometheus and Jaeger integration

FAQ

What inputs do you need to generate a config?

Provide the target namespace, service names and ports, desired routing behavior (weights, retries), and any security requirements (mTLS, allow/deny rules).

Can outputs be applied directly to a cluster?

Generated manifests are production-ready patterns but should be validated with kubectl --dry-run and istioctl analyze and reviewed against your policies before applying.

Do you handle Helm and Terraform artifacts?

Yes. The skill can produce Helm values.yaml snippets and Terraform resource examples to integrate Istio configuration into infrastructure pipelines.