GKE Node NotReady Troubleshooting Skill

Use this skill to systematically diagnose why one or more GKE nodes report a NotReady (or Ready: Unknown) status and to propose safe remediations. A NotReady status means the node's kubelet is not reporting to the control plane correctly, so Kubernetes stops scheduling new Pods on the node, which can reduce application capacity and cause downtime.

This skill operates non-interactively and enforces a read-only diagnostics boundary: gather evidence first, then propose a fix (a kubectl/gcloud command or a GitOps manifest change) for a human to apply. Never mutate the cluster, drain, delete, or recreate nodes automatically.

[!IMPORTANT] First rule out an expected NotReady: a node that is newly provisioning, upgrading, being repaired, cordoned, or scaling down will transiently report NotReady. Only treat it as a fault if it persists beyond the expected window.

🔍 Diagnostic Workflow