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Linkerd Patterns Agent Skill

Implement Linkerd service mesh patterns for lightweight, security-focused service mesh deployments. Use when setting up Linkerd, configuring traffic policies, or implementing zero-trust networking with minimal overhead.

2k tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
1
files
instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
38452
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository
npx skills add https://github.com/wshobson/agents --skill linkerd-patterns

The instruction itself

18 sections, as written by the author

Linkerd Patterns

Production patterns for Linkerd service mesh - the lightweight, security-first service mesh for Kubernetes.

When to Use This Skill

  • Setting up a lightweight service mesh
  • Implementing automatic mTLS
  • Configuring traffic splits for canary deployments
  • Setting up service profiles for per-route metrics
  • Implementing retries and timeouts
  • Multi-cluster service mesh

Core Concepts

1. Linkerd Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                Control Plane                 │
│  ┌─────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌──────────────┐ │
│  │ destiny │ │ identity │ │ proxy-inject │ │
│  └─────────┘ └──────────┘ └──────────────┘ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                      │
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 Data Plane                   │
│  ┌─────┐    ┌─────┐    ┌─────┐             │
│  │proxy│────│proxy│────│proxy│             │
│  └─────┘    └─────┘    └─────┘             │
│     │           │           │               │
│  ┌──┴──┐    ┌──┴──┐    ┌──┴──┐            │
│  │ app │    │ app │    │ app │            │
│  └─────┘    └─────┘    └─────┘            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘

2. Key Resources

| Resource | Purpose |

| ----------------------- | ------------------------------------ |

| ServiceProfile | Per-route metrics, retries, timeouts |

| TrafficSplit | Canary deployments, A/B testing |

| Server | Define server-side policies |

| ServerAuthorization | Access control policies |

Templates

Template 1: Mesh Installation

# Install CLI
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSfL https://run.linkerd.io/install | sh

# Validate cluster
linkerd check --pre

# Install CRDs
linkerd install --crds | kubectl apply -f -

# Install control plane
linkerd install | kubectl apply -f -

# Verify installation
linkerd check

# Install viz extension (optional)
linkerd viz install | kubectl apply -f -

Template 2: Inject Namespace

# Automatic injection for namespace
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: my-app
  annotations:
    linkerd.io/inject: enabled
---
# Or inject specific deployment
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: my-app
  annotations:
    linkerd.io/inject: enabled
spec:
  template:
    metadata:
      annotations:
        linkerd.io/inject: enabled

Template 3: Service Profile with Retries

apiVersion: linkerd.io/v1alpha2
kind: ServiceProfile
metadata:
  name: my-service.my-namespace.svc.cluster.local
  namespace: my-namespace
spec:
  routes:
    - name: GET /api/users
      condition:
        method: GET
        pathRegex: /api/users
      responseClasses:
        - condition:
            status:
              min: 500
              max: 599
          isFailure: true
      isRetryable: true
    - name: POST /api/users
      condition:
        method: POST
        pathRegex: /api/users
      # POST not retryable by default
      isRetryable: false
    - name: GET /api/users/{id}
      condition:
        method: GET
        pathRegex: /api/users/[^/]+
      timeout: 5s
      isRetryable: true
  retryBudget:
    retryRatio: 0.2
    minRetriesPerSecond: 10
    ttl: 10s

Template 4: Traffic Split (Canary)

apiVersion: split.smi-spec.io/v1alpha1
kind: TrafficSplit
metadata:
  name: my-service-canary
  namespace: my-namespace
spec:
  service: my-service
  backends:
    - service: my-service-stable
      weight: 900m # 90%
    - service: my-service-canary
      weight: 100m # 10%

Template 5: Server Authorization Policy

# Define the server
apiVersion: policy.linkerd.io/v1beta1
kind: Server
metadata:
  name: my-service-http
  namespace: my-namespace
spec:
  podSelector:
    matchLabels:
      app: my-service
  port: http
  proxyProtocol: HTTP/1
---
# Allow traffic from specific clients
apiVersion: policy.linkerd.io/v1beta1
kind: ServerAuthorization
metadata:
  name: allow-frontend
  namespace: my-namespace
spec:
  server:
    name: my-service-http
  client:
    meshTLS:
      serviceAccounts:
        - name: frontend
          namespace: my-namespace
---
# Allow unauthenticated traffic (e.g., from ingress)
apiVersion: policy.linkerd.io/v1beta1
kind: ServerAuthorization
metadata:
  name: allow-ingress
  namespace: my-namespace
spec:
  server:
    name: my-service-http
  client:
    unauthenticated: true
    networks:
      - cidr: 10.0.0.0/8

Template 6: HTTPRoute for Advanced Routing

apiVersion: policy.linkerd.io/v1beta2
kind: HTTPRoute
metadata:
  name: my-route
  namespace: my-namespace
spec:
  parentRefs:
    - name: my-service
      kind: Service
      group: core
      port: 8080
  rules:
    - matches:
        - path:
            type: PathPrefix
            value: /api/v2
        - headers:
            - name: x-api-version
              value: v2
      backendRefs:
        - name: my-service-v2
          port: 8080
    - matches:
        - path:
            type: PathPrefix
            value: /api
      backendRefs:
        - name: my-service-v1
          port: 8080

Template 7: Multi-cluster Setup

# On each cluster, install with cluster credentials
linkerd multicluster install | kubectl apply -f -

# Link clusters
linkerd multicluster link --cluster-name west \
  --api-server-address https://west.example.com:6443 \
  | kubectl apply -f -

# Export a service to other clusters
kubectl label svc/my-service mirror.linkerd.io/exported=true

# Verify cross-cluster connectivity
linkerd multicluster check
linkerd multicluster gateways

Monitoring Commands

# Live traffic view
linkerd viz top deploy/my-app

# Per-route metrics
linkerd viz routes deploy/my-app

# Check proxy status
linkerd viz stat deploy -n my-namespace

# View service dependencies
linkerd viz edges deploy -n my-namespace

# Dashboard
linkerd viz dashboard

Debugging

# Check injection status
linkerd check --proxy -n my-namespace

# View proxy logs
kubectl logs deploy/my-app -c linkerd-proxy

# Debug identity/TLS
linkerd identity -n my-namespace

# Tap traffic (live)
linkerd viz tap deploy/my-app --to deploy/my-backend

Best Practices

Do's

  • Enable mTLS everywhere - It's automatic with Linkerd
  • Use ServiceProfiles - Get per-route metrics and retries
  • Set retry budgets - Prevent retry storms
  • Monitor golden metrics - Success rate, latency, throughput

Don'ts

  • Don't skip check - Always run linkerd check after changes
  • Don't over-configure - Linkerd defaults are sensible
  • Don't ignore ServiceProfiles - They unlock advanced features
  • Don't forget timeouts - Set appropriate values per route

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How to use it

Copy the folder

Take wshobson/linkerd-patterns from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

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