Gke Basics

1. GKE MCP Tools  (preferred — structured, auditable, no shell required)
2. gcloud CLI     (fallback — when MCP doesn't expose the operation)
3. kubectl        (fallback — purely in-cluster ops not covered by MCP)

# List clusters in a project (all regions)
list_clusters(parent="projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/-")

# Get cluster details (all fields)
get_cluster(name="projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>/clusters/<CLUSTER_NAME>", readMask="*")

# Create golden path Autopilot cluster
create_cluster(
  parent="projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>",
  cluster='{"name":"<CLUSTER_NAME>","autopilot":{"enabled":true},"privateClusterConfig":{"enablePrivateNodes":true},...}'
)

# Get available Kubernetes versions (CLI-only)
gcloud container get-server-config --region <REGION> --format="yaml(channels)" --quiet

# Create golden path Autopilot cluster (see gke-cluster-creation.md for full templates)
gcloud container clusters create-auto <CLUSTER_NAME> \
  --region <REGION> --project <PROJECT_ID> \
  --enable-private-nodes --enable-master-authorized-networks \
  --enable-dns-access --release-channel regular \
  --enable-secret-manager --scoped-rbs-bindings \
  --quiet

# Get credentials (CLI-only)
gcloud container clusters get-credentials <CLUSTER_NAME> --region <REGION> --project <PROJECT_ID> --quiet

list_node_pools(parent="projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>/clusters/<CLUSTER_NAME>")

create_node_pool(
  parent="projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>/clusters/<CLUSTER_NAME>",
  nodePool='{"name":"<POOL_NAME>","config":{"machineType":"e2-standard-4"},"initialNodeCount":3,...}'
)

# Enable VPA via MCP
update_cluster(
  name="projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>/clusters/<CLUSTER_NAME>",
  update='{"desiredVerticalPodAutoscaling":{"enabled":true}}'
)

# Update monitoring components (CLI-only)
gcloud container clusters update <CLUSTER_NAME> --region <REGION> \
  --monitoring=SYSTEM,API_SERVER,SCHEDULER,CONTROLLER_MANAGER,STORAGE,POD,DEPLOYMENT,STATEFULSET,DAEMONSET,HPA \
  --quiet

# List all deployments in a namespace
get_k8s_resource(
  parent="projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>/clusters/<CLUSTER_NAME>",
  resourceType="deployment", namespace="<NAMESPACE>"
)

# Apply a manifest (with dry-run)
apply_k8s_manifest(parent="...", yamlManifest="...", dryRun=true)

# Patch deployment resources for rightsizing
patch_k8s_resource(
  parent="projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>/clusters/<CLUSTER_NAME>",
  resourceType="deployment", name="<DEPLOYMENT>", namespace="<NAMESPACE>",
  patch='{"spec":{"template":{"spec":{"containers":[{"name":"app","resources":{"requests":{"cpu":"200m","memory":"256Mi"}}}]}}}}'
)

# Check RBAC permissions
check_k8s_auth(parent="...", verb="create", resourceType="deployments", namespace="<NAMESPACE>")

# Get recent events across all namespaces
list_k8s_events(parent="...", allNamespaces=true, limit="50")

# Get logs (last 100 lines, or previous crash)
get_k8s_logs(parent="...", name="<POD>", namespace="<NS>", tail="100")
get_k8s_logs(parent="...", name="<POD>", namespace="<NS>", previous=true)

# Check rollout status
get_k8s_rollout_status(parent="...", resourceType="deployment", name="<DEPLOY>", namespace="<NS>")

list_operations(parent="projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>")
get_operation(name="projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>/operations/<OP_ID>")

gcloud container ai profiles models list --quiet
gcloud container ai profiles list --model=<MODEL_NAME> --quiet
gcloud container ai profiles manifests create \
  --model=<MODEL_NAME> --model-server=<SERVER> \
  --accelerator-type=<ACCELERATOR> \
  --target-ntpot-milliseconds=<NTPOT> --quiet > inference.yaml

# Deploy generated manifest via MCP
apply_k8s_manifest(parent="...", yamlManifest="<contents of inference.yaml>")

kubectl top pods --all-namespaces --sort-by=cpu
kubectl top nodes
kubectl scale deployment <DEPLOYMENT> --replicas=<N> -n <NAMESPACE>
kubectl exec -it <POD_NAME> -n <NAMESPACE> -- /bin/sh
kubectl port-forward svc/<SERVICE> <LOCAL_PORT>:<REMOTE_PORT> -n <NAMESPACE>
kubectl cp <NAMESPACE>/<POD>:<PATH> <LOCAL_PATH>
kubectl run debug --rm -it --image=busybox -- /bin/sh
kubectl drain <NODE_NAME> --ignore-daemonsets --delete-emptydir-data
helm install <RELEASE> <CHART> -n <NAMESPACE>
helm upgrade <RELEASE> <CHART> -n <NAMESPACE>

Project+Region:  projects/{PROJECT}/locations/{REGION}
Cluster:         projects/{PROJECT}/locations/{REGION}/clusters/{CLUSTER}
Node Pool:       projects/{PROJECT}/locations/{REGION}/clusters/{CLUSTER}/nodePools/{POOL}
Operation:       projects/{PROJECT}/locations/{REGION}/operations/{OP_ID}