Skip to content

RFC: Add service-mesh skill to aws-dev-toolkit #79

Description

@dshamanthreddy

Summary

Add a standalone service-mesh skill to aws-dev-toolkit covering service mesh on
EKS — Istio (sidecar + ambient), mTLS, L7 traffic management, and how it relates to
the AWS Gateway API and App Mesh's deprecation.

Motivation

The eks skill covers cluster lifecycle but nothing on east-west traffic or service
mesh. Questions about mTLS between services, canary/blue-green traffic shifting, or
Istio on EKS have no targeted skill today.

Proposed Solution

  • New folder: solution-architecture/plugins/aws-dev-toolkit/skills/service-mesh/
  • Single flat SKILL.md in dev-toolkit style (process → defaults → CLI → output table
    → related skills → anti-patterns). No references/ folder.
  • Trigger: service mesh, mTLS, traffic shifting, east-west traffic, Istio on EKS.
  • Covers: when a mesh is/isn't justified, install (sidecar vs ambient), mTLS, traffic
    management, observability (Kiali), cost, alternatives (Gateway API, Cilium).
  • Cross-link with eks, networking, observability.

Alternatives Considered

  • Fold into eks — rejected: doubles its size and dilutes its trigger.
  • Name it istio — rejected: no skill is named after an OSS tool; concept names
    (networking, observability) are the convention.

Open Questions

  • Name service-mesh vs eks-service-mesh?
  • Istio-only or include Cilium/Linkerd contrast?

Drawbacks

  • Adds to skill count; mesh tooling moves fast and will need periodic refresh.

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

No type

Projects

No projects

Milestone

No milestone

Relationships

None yet

Development

No branches or pull requests

Issue actions