controller-change-review

name	controller-change-review
description	Review and validate changes to the Kubernetes controller logic, including reconciliation loop, apply logic, transformation, and config handling. Use when modifying internal controller behavior or Kubernetes resource handling.

Controller Change Review Skill

When to use

Use this skill when changes affect:

• internal/controller/
• internal/apply/
• internal/reconcile/
• internal/transform/
• internal/config/
• internal/httpserver/
• cmd/controller/
• deploy/

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Core invariants (MUST NOT BREAK)

Always preserve:

• Reconciliation must be idempotent
• Controller must be safe under retries
• Backoff must be bounded and non-aggressive
• Leader election must not be bypassed
• Garbage collection must never delete unrelated resources
• Apply must remain safe and scoped
• Traefik CRDs must remain compatible

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Review checklist

Reconciliation loop

• Does the loop remain safe under repeated execution?
• Are external calls (Pangolin API) guarded against failures?
• Is change detection (ETag/hash) preserved?

Apply logic

• Are resources applied using server-side apply safely?
• Are field managers consistent?
• Are partial updates avoided?

Garbage collection

• Only deletes resources owned by this controller?
• Label selectors correct?
• No risk of deleting shared/global resources?

Transformation

• Traefik objects correctly generated?
• Routing, middleware, services preserved?
• No invalid CRDs produced?

Config handling

• Defaults preserved?
• Env + file merging still correct?
• No breaking changes to config fields?

HTTP server / observability

• Health and readiness endpoints still valid?
• Metrics preserved?

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Required validation

Run:

task test
task test:integration
go vet ./...

Optional deep validation:

task ci

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Expected output

• Summary of change impact
• Risks identified
• Required fixes (if any)
• Validation commands executed