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

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:
how to use linkerd-patterns
CursorClaude CodeClineCodexWindsurfGooseGitHub CopilotVS CodeGemini CLIKiloOpencodeKimi CLIRoo ClineAiderContinueZedBolt.newLovablev0Replit AgentSweepSmol DeveloperDevinCavemanAmpAntigravity
How to use linkerd-patterns on Cursor
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1
Prerequisites
Before installing skills in Cursor, ensure your development environment meets these requirements:
›Cursor installed and configured on your development machine
›Node.js version 16.0+ with npm package manager (verify with node --version)
›Active project directory or workspace where you want to add linkerd-patterns
2
Execute installation command
Execute the skills CLI command in your project's root directory to begin installation:
$npx skills add https://github.com/wshobson/agents --skill linkerd-patternscopy
The skills CLI fetches linkerd-patterns from GitHub repository wshobson/agents and configures it for Cursor.
3
Select Cursor when prompted
The CLI will show a list of available agents. Use arrow keys to navigate and space to select Cursor:
◆ Which agents do you want to install to?
│
│ ── Universal (.agents/skills) ── always included ────
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│   • Antigravity
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│ ●Cursor(selected)
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4
Verify installation
Confirm successful installation by checking the skill directory location:
.cursor/skills/linkerd-patterns
Reload or restart Cursor to activate linkerd-patterns. Access the skill through slash commands (e.g., /linkerd-patterns) or your agent's skill management interface.
⚠
Security & Verification Notice
We perform automated surface-level scans (Gen AI Scanner, Socket, Snyk) during installation. These checks detect common vulnerabilities but do not guarantee complete security. Always review skill source code and verify the publisher's reputation before production use.
Skills execute code in your development environment. Always verify the publisher's identity, review recent commits, and test in isolated environments before production deployment.
Additional Resources
›View source code on GitHub›Skills CLI documentation›Learn more about Cursor›What are agent skills?