Azure Kubernetes Service

AUTHORITATIVE GUIDANCE — MANDATORY COMPLIANCE

This skill produces a recommended AKS cluster configuration based on user requirements, distinguishing Day-0 decisions (networking, API server — hard to change later) from Day-1 features (can enable post-creation). See CLI reference for commands.

Quick Reference

When to Use This Skill

Activate this skill when user wants to:

• Create a new AKS cluster
• Plan AKS cluster configuration for production workloads
• Design AKS networking (API server access, pod IP model, egress)
• Set up AKS identity and secrets management
• Configure AKS governance (Azure Policy, Deployment Safeguards)
• Enable AKS observability (Container Insights, Managed Prometheus, Grafana)
• Define AKS upgrade and patching strategy
• Understand AKS Automatic vs Standard SKU differences
• Get a Day-0 checklist for AKS cluster setup and configuration

Rules

1. Start with the user's requirements for provisioning compute, networking, security, and other settings.
2. Use the azure MCP server and select mcp_azure_mcp_aks first to discover the exact AKS-specific MCP tools surfaced by the client. Choose the smallest discovered AKS tool that fits the task, and fall back to Azure CLI (az aks) only when the needed functionality is not exposed through the AKS MCP surface.
3. Determine if AKS Automatic or Standard SKU is more appropriate based on the user's need for control vs convenience. Default to AKS Automatic unless specific customizations are required.
4. Document decisions and rationale for cluster configuration choices, especially for Day-0 decisions that are hard to change later (networking, API server access).

Required Inputs (Ask only what’s needed)

If the user is unsure, use safe defaults.

• AKS environment type: dev/test or production
• Region(s), availability zones, preferred node VM sizes
• Expected scale (node/cluster count, workload size)
• Networking requirements (API server access, pod IP model, ingress/egress control)
• Security and identity requirements, including image registry
• Upgrade and observability preferences
• Cost constraints

Workflow

1. Cluster Type

• AKS Automatic (default): Best for most production workloads, provides a curated experience with pre-configured best practices for security, reliability, and performance. Use unless you have specific custom requirements for networking, autoscaling, or node pool configurations not supported by Node Auto-Provisioning (NAP).
• AKS Standard: Use if you need full control over environment configuration, which requires additional overhead to set up and manage.

2. Networking (Pod IP, Egress, Ingress, Dataplane)

Pod IP Model (Key Day-0 decision):

• Azure CNI Overlay (recommended): pod IPs from private overlay range, not VNet-routable, scales to large environments and good for most workloads
• Azure CNI (VNet-routable): pod IPs directly from VNet (pod subnet or node subnet), use when pods must be directly addressable from VNet or on-prem
  • Docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/aks/azure-cni-overlay

Dataplane & Network Policy:

• Azure CNI powered by Cilium (recommended): eBPF-based for high-performance packet processing, network policies, and observability

Egress:

• Static Egress Gateway for stable, predictable outbound IPs
• For restricted egress: UDR + Azure Firewall or NVA

Ingress:

• App Routing addon with Gateway API — recommended default for HTTP/HTTPS workloads

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