Agent skill

Istio Traffic Management

by wshobson in wshobson/agents

Configure Istio traffic management including routing, load balancing, circuit breakers, and canary deployments.

MITAuto-check passedDevOps & Cloud

Install Istio Traffic Management

skills CLI
$ npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill istio-traffic-management -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install wshobson/agents istio-traffic-management --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/wshobson/agents.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/plugins/cloud-infrastructure/skills/istio-traffic-management .claude/skills/istio-traffic-management && 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
istio-traffic-management
GitHub stars
40k
Used in
9 other repos
Token cost
~1.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
179 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
142
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Configure Istio traffic management including routing, load balancing, circuit breakers, and canary deployments.

  • Works in 2 steps: Traffic Management Resources → Traffic Flow
  • Implementing service mesh traffic policies
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use This Skill, Core Concepts, Templates and Load Balancing Strategies, plus 2 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Istio Traffic Management is an agent skill from wshobson/agents. Configure Istio traffic management including routing, load balancing, circuit breakers, and canary deployments. Use when implementing service mesh traffic policies, progressive delivery, or resilience patterns.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.7k 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 DevOps & Cloud, covering Deployment, Cloud networking and Microservices. The repository describes itself as: Multi-harness agentic plugin marketplace for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, GitHub Copilot, Google Antigravity, and Pi. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Implementing service mesh traffic policies
  • Progressive delivery
  • Resilience patterns

Example prompts

  • “/istio-traffic-management”

Workflow steps

2 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Traffic Management Resources
  2. Traffic Flow

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 46891e7. 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

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are yaml and bash).

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

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    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

Istio Traffic Management loads about 1.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 59 tokens; SKILL.md has 179 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~59
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.7k

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 wshobson/agents at commit 46891e7, republished under its MIT licence (© wshobson). 179 words, ~1,702 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/istio-traffic-management/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
istio-traffic-management
description
Configure Istio traffic management including routing, load balancing, circuit breakers, and canary deployments. Use when implementing service mesh traffic policies, progressive delivery, or resilience patterns.

Istio Traffic Management

Comprehensive guide to Istio traffic management for production service mesh deployments.

When to Use This Skill

  • Configuring service-to-service routing
  • Implementing canary or blue-green deployments
  • Setting up circuit breakers and retries
  • Load balancing configuration
  • Traffic mirroring for testing
  • Fault injection for chaos engineering

Core Concepts

1. Traffic Management Resources
ResourcePurposeScope
VirtualServiceRoute traffic to destinationsHost-based
DestinationRuleDefine policies after routingService-based
GatewayConfigure ingress/egressCluster edge
ServiceEntryAdd external servicesMesh-wide
2. Traffic Flow
Client → Gateway → VirtualService → DestinationRule → Service
                   (routing)        (policies)        (pods)

Templates

Template 1: Basic Routing
yaml
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: reviews-route
  namespace: bookinfo
spec:
  hosts:
    - reviews
  http:
    - match:
        - headers:
            end-user:
              exact: jason
      route:
        - destination:
            host: reviews
            subset: v2
    - route:
        - destination:
            host: reviews
            subset: v1
---
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: DestinationRule
metadata:
  name: reviews-destination
  namespace: bookinfo
spec:
  host: reviews
  subsets:
    - name: v1
      labels:
        version: v1
    - name: v2
      labels:
        version: v2
    - name: v3
      labels:
        version: v3
Template 2: Canary Deployment
yaml
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: my-service-canary
spec:
  hosts:
    - my-service
  http:
    - route:
        - destination:
            host: my-service
            subset: stable
          weight: 90
        - destination:
            host: my-service
            subset: canary
          weight: 10
---
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: DestinationRule
metadata:
  name: my-service-dr
spec:
  host: my-service
  trafficPolicy:
    connectionPool:
      tcp:
        maxConnections: 100
      http:
        h2UpgradePolicy: UPGRADE
        http1MaxPendingRequests: 100
        http2MaxRequests: 1000
  subsets:
    - name: stable
      labels:
        version: stable
    - name: canary
      labels:
        version: canary
Template 3: Circuit Breaker
yaml
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: DestinationRule
metadata:
  name: circuit-breaker
spec:
  host: my-service
  trafficPolicy:
    connectionPool:
      tcp:
        maxConnections: 100
      http:
        http1MaxPendingRequests: 100
        http2MaxRequests: 1000
        maxRequestsPerConnection: 10
        maxRetries: 3
    outlierDetection:
      consecutive5xxErrors: 5
      interval: 30s
      baseEjectionTime: 30s
      maxEjectionPercent: 50
      minHealthPercent: 30
Template 4: Retry and Timeout
yaml
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: ratings-retry
spec:
  hosts:
    - ratings
  http:
    - route:
        - destination:
            host: ratings
      timeout: 10s
      retries:
        attempts: 3
        perTryTimeout: 3s
        retryOn: connect-failure,refused-stream,unavailable,cancelled,retriable-4xx,503
        retryRemoteLocalities: true
Template 5: Traffic Mirroring
yaml
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: mirror-traffic
spec:
  hosts:
    - my-service
  http:
    - route:
        - destination:
            host: my-service
            subset: v1
      mirror:
        host: my-service
        subset: v2
      mirrorPercentage:
        value: 100.0
Template 6: Fault Injection
yaml
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: fault-injection
spec:
  hosts:
    - ratings
  http:
    - fault:
        delay:
          percentage:
            value: 10
          fixedDelay: 5s
        abort:
          percentage:
            value: 5
          httpStatus: 503
      route:
        - destination:
            host: ratings
Template 7: Ingress Gateway
yaml
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: Gateway
metadata:
  name: my-gateway
spec:
  selector:
    istio: ingressgateway
  servers:
    - port:
        number: 443
        name: https
        protocol: HTTPS
      tls:
        mode: SIMPLE
        credentialName: my-tls-secret
      hosts:
        - "*.example.com"
---
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: VirtualService
metadata:
  name: my-vs
spec:
  hosts:
    - "api.example.com"
  gateways:
    - my-gateway
  http:
    - match:
        - uri:
            prefix: /api/v1
      route:
        - destination:
            host: api-service
            port:
              number: 8080

Load Balancing Strategies

yaml
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: DestinationRule
metadata:
  name: load-balancing
spec:
  host: my-service
  trafficPolicy:
    loadBalancer:
      simple: ROUND_ROBIN # or LEAST_CONN, RANDOM, PASSTHROUGH
---
# Consistent hashing for sticky sessions
apiVersion: networking.istio.io/v1beta1
kind: DestinationRule
metadata:
  name: sticky-sessions
spec:
  host: my-service
  trafficPolicy:
    loadBalancer:
      consistentHash:
        httpHeaderName: x-user-id
        # or: httpCookie, useSourceIp, httpQueryParameterName

Best Practices

Do's
  • Start simple - Add complexity incrementally
  • Use subsets - Version your services clearly
  • Set timeouts - Always configure reasonable timeouts
  • Enable retries - But with backoff and limits
  • Monitor - Use Kiali and Jaeger for visibility
Don'ts
  • Don't over-retry - Can cause cascading failures
  • Don't ignore outlier detection - Enable circuit breakers
  • Don't mirror to production - Mirror to test environments
  • Don't skip canary - Test with small traffic percentage first

Debugging Commands

bash
# Check VirtualService configuration
istioctl analyze

# View effective routes
istioctl proxy-config routes deploy/my-app -o json

# Check endpoint discovery
istioctl proxy-config endpoints deploy/my-app

# Debug traffic
istioctl proxy-config log deploy/my-app --level debug

© wshobson, MIT. 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 plugins/cloud-infrastructure/skills/istio-traffic-management of wshobson/agents.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 46891e7

Used in 9 other repositories

We found 19 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 9 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in wshobson/agents, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Istio Traffic Management 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.

Istio Traffic Management compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Istio Traffic Management this skillwshobson/agents40k9 repos~1.7kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Frontmcp Deploymentagentfront/frontmcp146—~9.2kAutomated safety check: NotesApache-2.0
KubeSphere ServiceMesh Managerkubesphere/kubesphere17k—~2.4kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence
Nullprivate DeployNullPrivate/NullPrivate111—~2kAutomated safety check: PassGPL-3.0
Aks Deployment Skilltimothywarner/chatgptclass143—~916Automated safety check: PassCustom licence
KubeSphere Gateway Managementkubesphere/kubesphere17k—~2.9kAutomated safety check: PassCustom licence

Similar skills

  • Frontmcp Deployment

    agentfront/frontmcp

    A skill your agent uses when deploying, building for production, packaging, or shipping a FrontMCP server.

    146 GitHub stars~9.2k tokensUpdated today
    DevOps & CloudAuto-check: notes
  • KubeSphere ServiceMesh Manager

    kubesphere/kubesphere

    Installs, checks and troubleshoots the KubeSphere ServiceMesh extension (Istio, Kiali, Jaeger), including grayscale release, sidecar injection, topology and tracing issues.

    17k GitHub stars~2.4k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    DevOps & CloudAuto-check passed
  • Nullprivate Deploy

    NullPrivate/NullPrivate

    构建并发布 NullPrivate 镜像到阿里云容器镜像服务,更新 k3s 工作负载并完成 rollout、镜像 digest、Pod、Service、Gateway/Ingress、HTTPS 与 DNS/DoH 验收。Use when: 推送 dev 镜像、发布 NullPrivate、更新 public3 Pod、部署 adguardprivate、回滚 public3、检查…

    111 GitHub stars~2k tokensUpdated yesterday
    DevOps & CloudAuto-check passed
  • Aks Deployment Skill

    timothywarner/chatgptclass

    Deploy and operate workloads on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) the safe way.

    143 GitHub stars~916 tokensUpdated 21 days ago
    DevOps & CloudAuto-check passed
  • KubeSphere Gateway Management

    kubesphere/kubesphere

    Installs, uninstalls, checks and troubleshoots the KubeSphere Gateway extension built on ingress-nginx, including gateways stuck in bad states and Helm or pod failures.

    17k GitHub stars~2.9k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    DevOps & CloudAuto-check passed
  • Monstermq Broker Config

    vogler75/monster-mq

    Guide for configuring, deploying, and operating the MonsterMQ broker.

    143 GitHub stars~2.2k tokensUpdated today
    DevOps & CloudAuto-check passed

More from wshobson/agents

All 142 skills in this repo
  • Cuts cloud spend across AWS, Azure, GCP and OCI with cost tagging, rightsizing, commitment and spot pricing models, and architecture changes.

    40k GitHub starsUsed in 14 repos~1.7k tokens
    Auto-check passed
  • Billing Automation

    wshobson/agents

    Covers building subscription billing: billing cycles, subscription states, invoice generation, proration, tax handling and dunning for failed payments.

    40k GitHub starsUsed in 13 repos~473 tokens
    Auto-check passed
  • Profiles slow Python code with cProfile and memory profilers, then applies targeted fixes for CPU, memory, I/O and query bottlenecks.

    40k GitHub starsUsed in 13 repos~814 tokens
    Auto-check passed
  • Writes unit tests for shell scripts with Bats: error-condition tests, fixtures and mocks, cross-shell checks, parallel runs, helper files and CI integration.

    40k GitHub starsUsed in 12 repos~1.3k tokens
    Auto-check passed
  • Distributed Tracing

    wshobson/agents

    Implement distributed tracing with Jaeger and Tempo to track requests across microservices and identify performance bottlenecks.

    40k GitHub starsUsed in 12 repos~527 tokens
    Auto-check passed
  • Reference for designing and tuning production LLM prompts: few-shot examples, chain-of-thought, structured outputs, templates and system prompts.

    40k GitHub stars~1.3k tokensUpdated 6 days ago
    Auto-check passed

Categories

Questions about Istio Traffic Management

What does Istio Traffic Management do?

Configure Istio traffic management including routing, load balancing, circuit breakers, and canary deployments. Istio Traffic Management is an agent skill from wshobson/agents. Configure Istio traffic management including routing, load balancing, circuit breakers, and canary deployments.

When should I use Istio Traffic Management?

Istio Traffic Management fits situations like: implementing service mesh traffic policies; progressive delivery; resilience patterns.

How do I install Istio Traffic Management in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill istio-traffic-management -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/cloud-infrastructure/skills/istio-traffic-management in wshobson/agents) into .claude/skills/istio-traffic-management in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Istio Traffic Management in Codex?

Run `npx skills add wshobson/agents --skill istio-traffic-management -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (plugins/cloud-infrastructure/skills/istio-traffic-management in wshobson/agents) into .agents/skills/istio-traffic-management in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Istio Traffic Management 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 wshobson/agents --skill istio-traffic-management -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/istio-traffic-management, .gemini/skills/istio-traffic-management, .github/skills/istio-traffic-management and .opencode/skills/istio-traffic-management in your project.

What does Istio Traffic Management need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Istio Traffic Management is instructions for the agent only.

Does Istio Traffic Management access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Istio Traffic Management 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 Istio Traffic Management use?

Istio Traffic Management is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Istio Traffic Management use?

About 1.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.8k 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 Istio Traffic Management?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Istio Traffic Management: Frontmcp Deployment (agentfront/frontmcp, 146 stars), KubeSphere ServiceMesh Manager (kubesphere/kubesphere, 17k stars), Nullprivate Deploy (NullPrivate/NullPrivate, 111 stars) and Aks Deployment Skill (timothywarner/chatgptclass, 143 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Istio Traffic Management?

wshobson (a GitHub user) maintains it in wshobson/agents, which has 40,314 GitHub stars. The repository holds 142 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 5, 2026.

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