Kubernetes Production Readiness Checklist – Technical Briefing

The Problem

Deploying an application to Kubernetes often requires juggling many configuration items—service definitions, RBAC, resource limits, and observability. Teams tend to lose track of which items are mandatory for a production release, leading to incomplete setups and post‑deployment incidents.

What This Does

The repository bundles a markdown‑based checklist that covers the five core areas of a Kubernetes release: application readiness, manifest correctness, security, scaling, and go‑live operations.

  • 01-your-application.md – verifies image tagging, health probes, and resource requests.
  • 02-your-manifests.md – checks deployment, config maps, and volumes.
  • 03-your-security.md – audits pod security policies, service account usage, and network policies.
  • 04-scaling.md – evaluates horizontal/vertical pod autoscaling and cluster autoscaler settings.
  • 05-going-live.md – outlines readiness gates, canary strategies, and rollback plans.

Additional notes in notes/kubernetes-best-practices.md and notes/kubernetes-patterns.md give context and common patterns.

How It Is Wired

The repository has no executable code; its "flow" is purely static.

  • Entry point: README.md links to each section.
  • Responsibility: Each markdown file is a self‑contained checklist; no cross‑file imports or runtime dependencies exist.
  • External touchpoints: The only external artifacts are the preview images (preview.png, prod-best-practices.gif) which are referenced in the README for visual context.

How To Use It

  1. Clone ``bash git clone https://github.com/moses-y/kubernetes-production-best-practices ``
  2. View Open any markdown file in a browser or a markdown viewer.
  3. Integrate Copy the checklist sections into your own documentation portal or CI documentation generator.

No build, install, or runtime configuration is required.

Real‑World Use

A DevOps team can embed the checklist into a pre‑deployment gate: before merging a PR, a reviewer verifies that each of the five sections has been addressed. A simple CI comment bot could scan the markdown files for missing required items and enforce compliance.

Code Health & Issues

  • Severity (Medium/SDLC) – No test files – repository‑wide – no automated coverage.
  • Severity (Medium/SDLC) – No CI/CD pipeline – repository‑wide – no automated linting or build checks.

The repository contains a LICENSE file, so legal compliance is addressed.

The Bottom Line

This repository is a lightweight, static checklist that serves well as a quick reference or a template for internal documentation. It lacks automation, tests, and CI integration, so teams should supplement it with tooling if they need enforcement or integration into their pipelines. Ideal for teams that prefer a simple, markdown‑based checklist over a complex code‑based solution.