Kubernetes & Helm: Production Infrastructure

Create, review, and architect Kubernetes infrastructure - from raw manifests to Helm charts to multi-cluster strategy. The goal is production-ready, security-hardened, cost-aware infrastructure that a team can maintain.

Target versions (September 2026): Kubernetes 1.34-1.37 are receiving patches (1.37.0 / 1.36.4 / 1.35.8 / 1.34.11). Kubernetes normally maintains the most recent three minors; 1.34 is in its final maintenance window and reaches EOL October 27, 2026. Upstream Kubernetes has no LTS. Managed vendor extended support (AKS/EKS) carries older minors longer - attribute it to the platform, not upstream. Helm 4.2.4 and Helm 3.21.4 are the current parallel release lines; Helm 3 security maintenance ends in November 2026. This skill covers four domains depending on context:

• Manifests - raw YAML for Deployments, Services, Gateway API routes, ConfigMaps, Secrets, PVCs
• Helm - Helm 4 chart scaffolding, OCI registries, templating, multi-environment values
• Architecture - cluster topology, GitOps, security layers, observability, cost, DR
• Compliance - PCI-DSS 4.0 controls, CDE isolation, audit logging, supply chain

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