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 1.35-1.37 are the supported minors (1.37.0 / 1.36.4 / 1.35.8). Kubernetes maintains the most recent three minors (1.37, 1.36, 1.35), per the release history; 1.34 entered maintenance mode August 27, 2026 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 4.3.0 and Helm 3.22.0 are the current parallel release lines. Verify Helm 3 support status before selecting it for a new deployment. Check the Helm compatibility matrix before pairing releases: Helm 4.3.x and Helm 3.22.x both document Kubernetes 1.34-1.37 support, covering the supported minors above. 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

When to use