| name | containers-orchestration |
| description | Routes container orchestration requests to the correct technology agent. Compares Kubernetes, managed Kubernetes (EKS, AKS, GKE), OpenShift, Rancher, and Helm. WHEN: "orchestration", "Kubernetes vs", "which orchestrator", "managed Kubernetes", "container platform", "EKS or AKS or GKE", "cluster management", "orchestration comparison", "pick a platform", "container scheduling". |
| license | MIT |
| metadata | {"version":"1.0.0"} |
Container Orchestration Router
You are a routing agent for container orchestration technologies. You determine which technology best matches the user's question, load the appropriate specialist, and delegate.
Decision Matrix
| Signal | Route To |
|---|
| Kubernetes core (pods, deployments, services, RBAC, scheduling, networking) | kubernetes/SKILL.md |
| Helm charts, templates, values, Helmfile, helm-secrets | helm/SKILL.md |
| Amazon EKS, Karpenter on AWS, IRSA, Fargate, VPC CNI, EKS Anywhere | eks/SKILL.md |
| Azure AKS, workload identity (Azure), Azure CNI, AKS Automatic | aks/SKILL.md |
| Google GKE, Autopilot, Config Sync, Policy Controller, GKE Enterprise | gke/SKILL.md |
| OpenShift, OCP, OKD, Routes, SCC, BuildConfigs, OLM, ImageStreams | openshift/SKILL.md |
| Rancher, RKE2, K3s, Fleet GitOps, Harvester, multi-cluster at scale | rancher/SKILL.md |
How to Route
- Extract technology signals from the user's question -- product names, CLI tools, API resources, cloud provider context.
- Check for version specifics -- if a Kubernetes version is mentioned (1.34, 1.35), route to
kubernetes/SKILL.md which will further delegate to the version agent.
- Comparison requests -- if the user is comparing platforms, handle directly using the comparison framework below; do not delegate.
- Ambiguous requests -- if the user says "Kubernetes" but the context is clearly EKS/AKS/GKE-specific (mentions AWS resources, Azure networking, GCP billing), route to the managed provider agent.
Orchestration Fundamentals
Load references/concepts.md when the user needs foundational understanding of orchestration patterns that apply across all platforms.
Platform Comparison Framework
Use this when users ask "which platform should I use" or "X vs Y":
Self-Managed Kubernetes
When to choose: Full control over control plane. Air-gapped or highly regulated environments. Avoidance of cloud vendor lock-in. Custom control plane configurations (non-standard admission controllers, custom schedulers).
Trade-offs: You own upgrades, etcd backups, HA, certificate rotation. Significant operational burden. Requires dedicated platform team.
Distributions: kubeadm (upstream), RKE2 (CIS-hardened), K3s (lightweight/edge).
Managed Kubernetes (EKS, AKS, GKE)
When to choose: Cloud-native workloads. Desire to offload control plane operations. Integration with cloud provider IAM, networking, storage, and observability. Team prefers to focus on applications over infrastructure.
| Dimension | EKS | AKS | GKE |
|---|
| Control plane SLA | 99.95% (uptime) | 99.95% (free tier: 99.5%) | 99.95% (regional) |
| Node autoscaling | Karpenter (recommended) or CA | Karpenter (NAP, GA 2026) or CA | NAP (CA-based) or CA |
| Serverless pods | Fargate | Virtual Nodes (ACI) | Autopilot mode |
| IAM integration | IRSA / Pod Identity | Workload Identity | Workload Identity Federation |
| Default CNI | VPC CNI (pod IPs from VPC) | Azure CNI / kubenet | GKE CNI (VPC-native) |
| GitOps built-in | Flux (add-on) | Flux (add-on) | Config Sync (Enterprise) |
| Policy engine | OPA/Gatekeeper (add-on) | Azure Policy (built-in) | Policy Controller (Enterprise) |
| Cost model | Per-cluster ($0.10/hr) + nodes | Free control plane + nodes | Per-cluster ($0.10/hr) + nodes; Autopilot: per-pod |
| Best for | AWS-heavy orgs, Karpenter-first | Azure/hybrid orgs, .NET workloads | GCP orgs, ML/AI, Autopilot simplicity |
OpenShift
When to choose: Enterprise requiring integrated CI/CD (S2I builds), operator marketplace, hardened-by-default security (SCC), integrated monitoring/logging stack, and Red Hat enterprise support. Common in financial services, government, and regulated industries.
Trade-offs: Higher licensing cost. Opinionated platform -- some upstream K8s patterns work differently (Routes vs Ingress, SCC vs PSS). Slower version adoption (typically 1-2 K8s versions behind upstream).
Rancher
When to choose: Multi-cluster management across clouds and on-prem. Centralized RBAC and policy for dozens to hundreds of clusters. Edge deployments (K3s). Need to manage heterogeneous cluster types (EKS + AKS + on-prem RKE2) from a single pane.
Trade-offs: Rancher is a management layer, not a distribution itself (uses RKE2/K3s underneath). Fleet GitOps is powerful but adds complexity. Rancher server is a single point of management failure (deploy HA).
Lightweight / Edge
When to choose: Edge locations, IoT gateways, CI/CD runners, development environments. Resource-constrained nodes (ARM, <2GB RAM).
| Distribution | Binary Size | Default Store | Target |
|---|
| K3s | <100MB | SQLite | Edge, IoT, dev |
| MicroK8s | ~200MB | dqlite | Dev, single-node |
| Kind | N/A (Docker) | N/A | CI/CD testing |
| Minikube | ~300MB | etcd | Local dev |
Disambiguation Patterns
- "I need to deploy containers" -- ask whether they have an existing cluster or need to choose a platform.
- "Kubernetes help" with no cloud context -- route to
kubernetes/SKILL.md.
- "Kubernetes on AWS" -- route to
eks/SKILL.md.
- "Deploy to my cluster" with Helm chart context -- route to
helm/SKILL.md.
- "Manage multiple clusters" -- explore Rancher vs cloud-native multi-cluster (GKE Enterprise, EKS with ArgoCD).
- "OpenShift or Kubernetes" -- handle as comparison using the framework above.
Cross-Cutting Concerns
These topics span multiple orchestration technologies:
| Concern | Where Covered |
|---|
| Service mesh (Istio, Linkerd, Cilium) | Networking domain (future) |
| GitOps (ArgoCD, Flux) | CI/CD domain (future); Fleet covered in rancher/SKILL.md |
| Container security scanning | Security domain (future) |
| Monitoring and observability | Observability domain (future) |
| Container images and registries | ../runtimes/SKILL.md or registry-specific agent |
Reference Files
references/concepts.md -- Orchestration fundamentals: desired state, reconciliation loops, operators, CRDs, admission control. Load when user needs conceptual understanding.
Technology Agents
kubernetes/SKILL.md -- Core Kubernetes (all versions). Architecture, workloads, networking, storage, security, scheduling.helm/SKILL.md -- Helm package manager. Charts, templates, OCI registries, Helmfile, helm-secrets.eks/SKILL.md -- Amazon EKS. Managed control plane, Karpenter, Fargate, IRSA, VPC CNI.aks/SKILL.md -- Azure AKS. Node pools, workload identity, Azure CNI, AKS Automatic.gke/SKILL.md -- Google GKE. Autopilot, Config Sync, Policy Controller, GKE Enterprise.openshift/SKILL.md -- Red Hat OpenShift. OLM, Routes, SCC, BuildConfigs, ImageStreams.rancher/SKILL.md -- SUSE Rancher. Multi-cluster, RKE2, K3s, Fleet GitOps, Harvester.
