Official agent skill

Gke Platform Security

by google in google/skills

Plans, configures, and hardens platform-level Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster security.

OfficialApache-2.0Auto-check passedBackend & APIs

Install Gke Platform Security

skills CLI
$ npx skills add google/skills --skill gke-platform-security -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install google/skills gke-platform-security --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/google/skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/cloud/gke-platform-security .claude/skills/gke-platform-security && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
gke-platform-security
GitHub stars
21k
Token cost
~2.5k tokens
SKILL.md length
520 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
145
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

Plans, configures, and hardens platform-level Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster security.

  • Securing cluster control planes
  • SKILL.md covers Golden Path Security Defaults, Secret Manager Add-on Enablement, RBAC Hardening and Binary Authorization, plus 4 more sections
  • Calls gcloud; reaches cloud.google.com
  • Hardening GKE RBAC

What it does

Gke Platform Security is an agent skill from google/skills, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Plans, configures, and hardens platform-level Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster security. Covers cluster add-ons (Secret Manager enablement), RBAC hardening (disabling insecure bindings, audit tools), Binary Authorization, Secrets Encryption (--database-encryption-key), Security Posture (--security-posture), enabling Shielded Nodes, GKE Sandbox cluster enablement, GKE IAM roles, and cross-service authentication IAM patterns. Use when securing cluster control planes, hardening GKE RBAC, enabling Shielded…

Its SKILL.md is about 2.5k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Backend & APIs, covering Authorization and RBAC. It works with Google Kubernetes Engine and Kubernetes. The repository describes itself as: Agent Skills for Google products and technologies. The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

  • Securing cluster control planes
  • Hardening GKE RBAC
  • Enabling Shielded Nodes
  • Enabling GKE Sandbox runtime

Example prompts

  • “/gke-platform-security”

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 8a1ac05. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • gcloud

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

    • cloud.google.com

    Also links to:

    • docs.cloud.google.com

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Gke Platform Security loads about 2.5k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 205 tokens; SKILL.md has 520 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~205
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.5k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from google/skills at commit 8a1ac05, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© google). 520 words, ~2,495 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/gke-platform-security/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
gke-platform-security
description
Plans, configures, and hardens platform-level Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster security. Covers cluster add-ons (Secret Manager enablement), RBAC hardening (disabling insecure bindings, audit tools), Binary Authorization, Secrets Encryption (--database-encryption-key), Security Posture (--security-posture), enabling Shielded Nodes, GKE Sandbox cluster enablement, GKE IAM roles, and cross-service authentication IAM patterns. Use when securing cluster control planes, hardening GKE RBAC, enabling Shielded Nodes, enabling GKE Sandbox runtime, enabling cluster-wide security add-ons, or managing GKE IAM roles. Don't use for Workload Identity (use gke-workload-identity) or workload-level security (SecretProviderClass, PSS, NetPol, gVisor pod runtimeClassName; use gke-workload-security).
metadata.version
1.0.1
metadata.category
Security

GKE Platform Security

This reference covers platform-level security hardening and cluster configuration for Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). For workload-level security controls (such as Workload Identity Service Account bindings, SecretProviderClass volume mounts, Network Policies, and Pod Security Standards), refer to the gke-workload-security skill.

MCP Tools: gke:get_cluster, k8s:check_k8s_auth, k8s:get_k8s_resource, k8s:apply_k8s_manifest, gke:update_cluster

Golden Path Security Defaults

SettingGolden Path ValueDay-0/1Notes
workloadIdentityConfig.workloadPool<PROJECT>.svc.id.googDay-0Workload Identity Federation for cluster pods
secretManagerConfig.enabledtrueDay-1Google Secret Manager cluster add-on integration
secretManagerConfig.rotationConfigenabled: true, rotationInterval: 120sDay-1Automatic secret rotation at the cluster level
rbacBindingConfig.enableInsecureBindingSystemAuthenticatedfalseDay-0Blocks legacy system:authenticated bindings
rbacBindingConfig.enableInsecureBindingSystemUnauthenticatedfalseDay-0Blocks legacy system:unauthenticated bindings
nodeConfig.shieldedInstanceConfig.enableSecureBoottrueDay-0Verifiable boot integrity
nodeConfig.shieldedInstanceConfig.enableIntegrityMonitoringtrueDay-0Runtime integrity checks
nodeConfig.workloadMetadataConfig.modeGKE_METADATADay-0Blocks legacy metadata API, enforces Workload Identity
Private cluster + Dataplane V2 settingsSee the gke-networking skillDay-0Private nodes, private endpoint enforcement, ADVANCED_DATAPATH

Secret Manager Add-on Enablement

The golden path enables Secret Manager at the cluster level with automatic secret rotation.

bash
# Verify Secret Manager is enabled on cluster
gcloud container clusters describe <CLUSTER_NAME> --region <REGION> \
  --format="value(secretManagerConfig.enabled)" \
  --quiet

# Enable if not already (Day-1 change)
gcloud container clusters update <CLUSTER_NAME> --region <REGION> \
  --enable-secret-manager \
  --secret-manager-rotation-interval=120s \
  --quiet

Note: For configuring SecretProviderClass manifests and mounting secrets as volumes inside application deployments, see the gke-workload-security skill.

RBAC Hardening

The golden path disables insecure legacy RBAC bindings that grant broad access to system:authenticated and system:unauthenticated groups.

bash
# Verify insecure bindings are disabled
gcloud container clusters describe <CLUSTER_NAME> --region <REGION> \
  --format="yaml(rbacBindingConfig)" \
  --quiet

Best practices for RBAC:

  • Use namespace-scoped Roles over cluster-wide ClusterRoles.
  • Bind to specific Groups or ServiceAccounts, never to system:authenticated or system:unauthenticated.
  • Audit permissions via MCP: k8s:check_k8s_auth(parent="...", verb="list", resourceType="pods", namespace="...") (or kubectl auth can-i --list --as=<user>).
  • Review bindings via MCP: k8s:get_k8s_resource(parent="...", resourceType="clusterrolebinding") (or kubectl get clusterrolebindings,rolebindings --all-namespaces).

See the gke-multitenancy skill for enterprise RBAC planning and https://docs.cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/best-practices/rbac.md.txt

Binary Authorization

Not enabled in golden path by default but recommended for enforcing production image provenance across the cluster:

bash
# Enable Binary Authorization
gcloud container clusters update <CLUSTER_NAME> --region <REGION> \
  --binauthz-evaluation-mode=PROJECT_SINGLETON_POLICY_ENFORCE \
  --quiet

Shielded Nodes & GKE Sandbox Enablement

Enabling verifiable node boot integrity and kernel isolation features at the cluster level:

bash
# Enable Shielded Nodes on an existing cluster
gcloud container clusters update <CLUSTER_NAME> --region <REGION> \
  --enable-shielded-nodes \
  --quiet

# Enable GKE Sandbox (gVisor) runtime on an existing cluster
gcloud container clusters update <CLUSTER_NAME> --region <REGION> \
  --enable-gke-sandbox \
  --quiet

Note: To run workloads inside the gVisor sandbox, specify runtimeClassName: gvisor in your Pod specs as detailed in the gke-workload-security skill.

Show full SKILL.md (210 more words)Show less

Common IAM Roles

The five most common predefined IAM roles for GKE platform and cluster access:

RolePurposeWhen to Use
roles/container.adminFull control overPlatform team admins
: : clusters and : managing cluster :
: : Kubernetes : lifecycle :
: : resources : :
roles/container.clusterAdminManage clusters butCluster operators
: : not project-level : who create/delete :
: : IAM : clusters :
roles/container.developerDeploy workloadsApplication
: : (pods, services, : developers deploying :
: : deployments) : to existing clusters :
roles/container.viewerRead-only access toMonitoring,
: : clusters and : auditing, or :
: : Kubernetes : read-only dashboards :
: : resources : :
roles/container.clusterViewerList and getCI/CD pipelines that
: : cluster details : need cluster :
: : only : metadata :

Principle of least privilege: Start with roles/container.viewer or roles/container.developer and escalate only as needed. Avoid granting roles/container.admin broadly across teams.

Service Accounts & Agents

  • GKE Service Agent (service-<PROJECT_NUMBER>@container-engine-robot.iam.gserviceaccount.com): Automatically created. Manages nodes, networking, and cluster operations on your behalf. Do not remove or modify its permissions.
  • Node Service Account: By default, nodes use the Compute Engine default service account. For production platforms, create a dedicated Google Service Account with minimal required permissions (roles/monitoring.metricWriter, roles/logging.logWriter) and assign it at node pool creation time.
  • Workload Identity: For binding Google Service Accounts to Kubernetes Service Accounts (roles/iam.workloadIdentityUser), refer to the gke-workload-security skill.

Cross-Service Authentication Patterns

Common project-level IAM policy binding patterns for granting backend Google Service Accounts (GSAs) access to external Google Cloud services before linking via Workload Identity:

bash
# Grant a GSA access to Cloud Storage objects
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding <PROJECT_ID> \
  --member "serviceAccount:<GSA_NAME>@<PROJECT_ID>.iam.gserviceaccount.com" \
  --role "roles/storage.objectViewer" \
  --quiet

# Grant a GSA access to Cloud SQL databases
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding <PROJECT_ID> \
  --member "serviceAccount:<GSA_NAME>@<PROJECT_ID>.iam.gserviceaccount.com" \
  --role "roles/cloudsql.client" \
  --quiet

# Grant a GSA access to Pub/Sub subscriptions
gcloud projects add-iam-policy-binding <PROJECT_ID> \
  --member "serviceAccount:<GSA_NAME>@<PROJECT_ID>.iam.gserviceaccount.com" \
  --role "roles/pubsub.subscriber" \
  --quiet

## Resources

- [GKE Cluster Hardening Guide](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/hardening-your-cluster)
- [GKE RBAC Best Practices](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/best-practices/rbac)
- [Secret Manager Add-on for GKE](https://cloud.google.com/secret-manager/docs/secret-manager-managed-csi-component)
- [Binary Authorization on GKE](https://cloud.google.com/binary-authorization/docs/setting-up)
- [Shielded GKE Nodes](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/shielded-gke-nodes)
- [GKE Sandbox (gVisor)](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/sandbox-pods)

© google, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/cloud/gke-platform-security of google/skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 8a1ac05

Compare with similar skills

Gke Platform Security next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Gke Platform Security compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Gke Platform Security this skillgoogle/skills21k—~2.5kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Defending Kubernetestrilwu/secskills156—~2.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Mirrord Operatoraiskillstore/marketplace430—~4.6kAutomated safety check: PassNone
Securing Kubernetes On Cloudmukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills34k—~3.3kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
K8s Security PoliciesCybereason-Public/owLSM28011 repos~2kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-2.0
Implementing Rbac Hardening For Kubernetesmukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills34k—~2kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0

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Categories

Questions about Gke Platform Security

What does Gke Platform Security do?

Plans, configures, and hardens platform-level Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster security. Gke Platform Security is an agent skill from google/skills, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Plans, configures, and hardens platform-level Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) cluster security.

When should I use Gke Platform Security?

Gke Platform Security fits situations like: securing cluster control planes; hardening GKE RBAC; enabling Shielded Nodes; enabling GKE Sandbox runtime.

How do I install Gke Platform Security in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add google/skills --skill gke-platform-security -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/cloud/gke-platform-security in google/skills) into .claude/skills/gke-platform-security in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Gke Platform Security in Codex?

Run `npx skills add google/skills --skill gke-platform-security -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/cloud/gke-platform-security in google/skills) into .agents/skills/gke-platform-security in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Gke Platform Security in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add google/skills --skill gke-platform-security -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/gke-platform-security, .gemini/skills/gke-platform-security, .github/skills/gke-platform-security and .opencode/skills/gke-platform-security in your project.

What does Gke Platform Security need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Gke Platform Security needs the command-line tools its instructions call (gcloud).

Does Gke Platform Security access the network?

SKILL.md names 2 domains. In commands or code: cloud.google.com; the agent is likely to contact it when it follows the instructions. As links in the text: docs.cloud.google.com. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Gke Platform Security safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Gke Platform Security use?

Gke Platform Security is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Gke Platform Security use?

About 2.5k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 10k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Gke Platform Security?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Gke Platform Security: Defending Kubernetes (trilwu/secskills, 156 stars), Mirrord Operator (aiskillstore/marketplace, 430 stars), Securing Kubernetes On Cloud (mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills, 34k stars) and K8s Security Policies (Cybereason-Public/owLSM, 280 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Gke Platform Security?

google (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in google/skills, which has 20,994 GitHub stars. The repository holds 145 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 6, 2026.

Source: google/skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.