Helm & Kubernetes Deployment (Research-Driven)

Philosophy

This skill does NOT dump logs into context. Instead, it guides you to:

1. Research the current Helm/K8s state efficiently
2. Extract only relevant log lines (not full logs)
3. Diagnose issues with targeted commands
4. Preserve context by summarising rather than copying

CRITICAL: Context-Efficient Log Analysis

NEVER dump full logs into context. Instead:

# ✅ GOOD: Get last 20 lines with errors only
kubectl logs <pod> --tail=20 2>&1 | grep -i "error\|fail\|exception"

# ✅ GOOD: Get events (more useful than logs for debugging)
kubectl get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp' | tail -20

# ✅ GOOD: Check pod status first (often enough)
kubectl get pods -o wide

# ❌ BAD: Full log dump (burns context)
kubectl logs <pod>

Pre-Implementation Research Protocol

Step 1: Verify Cluster State

ALWAYS run this first (small output, high signal):

# Quick cluster health check
kubectl cluster-info 2>&1 | head -5

# Check namespace pods status
kubectl get pods -n <namespace> -o wide

# Recent events (usually reveals issues)
kubectl get events --sort-by='.lastTimestamp' -n <namespace> | tail -15

Step 2: Helm Chart Validation (Before Deploy)

# Lint chart
helm lint charts/<chart-name>

# Dry-run template rendering
helm template charts/<chart-name> --debug 2>&1 | head -100

# Validate manifests
helm template charts/<chart-name> | kubectl apply --dry-run=client -f -

Step 3: Targeted Debugging (Context-Efficient)

For pod issues, use this escalation:

1. Status check (no logs needed):

   kubectl describe pod <pod> | grep -A 20 "Events:"
   

2. Recent logs only:

   kubectl logs <pod> --tail=30 --since=5m
   

3. Error extraction:

   kubectl logs <pod> 2>&1 | grep -i "error\|exception\|fatal" | tail -20
   

4. Container-specific (for multi-container pods):

   kubectl logs <pod> -c <container> --tail=20
   

Floe-Runtime Chart Structure

charts/
├── floe-runtime/       # Umbrella chart
├── floe-dagster/       # Dagster webserver/daemon
├── floe-cube/          # Cube semantic layer
└── floe-infrastructure/ # PostgreSQL, MinIO, Polaris

Common Debugging Patterns

Context Injection (For Subagent Delegation)

When spawning the docker-log-analyser agent:

Analyse logs for [pod-name] focusing on:
- Startup failures
- Connection errors to [service]
- Specific error: [paste only the error line, not full log]

Return ONLY:
1. Root cause (1-2 sentences)
2. Suggested fix
3. Commands to verify fix

Quick Reference: Common Research Queries

WebSearch patterns (use when unfamiliar):

• "Helm [chart-name] values.yaml reference 2025"
• "Kubernetes [error-message] troubleshooting"
• "Dagster Helm chart configuration 2025"

Integration with Floe Skills

Summary: Context Preservation Rules

1. Never dump full logs — extract error lines only
2. Use kubectl describe before kubectl logs
3. Use --tail=N on all log commands
4. Delegate to docker-log-analyser agent for deep analysis
5. Summarise findings rather than pasting output