Build Your Traffic Engineering Skill

Your AI agent is deployed to Kubernetes, but external users still cannot reach it. Before learning how to solve this problem—controlling traffic flow, rate limiting abuse, terminating TLS, and autoscaling under load—you will own a traffic-engineer skill.

This skill becomes a component of your sellable Digital FTE portfolio. By the end of this chapter, you will have a production-tested skill that generates Gateway API configurations, rate limiting policies, and autoscaling rules for any AI deployment.

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Step 1: Get the Skills Lab

1. Go to github.com/fistasolutions/claude-code-skills-lab
2. Click the green Code button
3. Select Download ZIP
4. Extract the ZIP file
5. Open the extracted folder in your terminal

Output:

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Step 2: Write Your LEARNING-SPEC.md

Before asking Claude to build your skill, define what you want to learn. Create a file named LEARNING-SPEC.md:

Output:

This specification tells Claude exactly what you need and how you will measure success.

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Step 3: Fetch Official Documentation

Ask Claude to gather the authoritative source material:

Claude will retrieve documentation from the official Envoy Gateway project, giving your skill accurate, up-to-date patterns rather than hallucinated configurations.

Output:

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Step 4: Create Your Skill

Now prompt Claude to build the skill using the fetched documentation:

Claude will:

1. Study the fetched documentation
2. Ask clarifying questions about your traffic patterns
3. Create the skill with Gateway API templates and best practices

Output:

Your skill appears at .claude/skills/traffic-engineer/.

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Step 5: Test Your Skill

Verify your new skill generates valid Kubernetes YAML:

Output:

Save the output and validate:

Output:

If dry-run succeeds, your skill generates valid Gateway API configurations.

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Done

You now own a traffic-engineer skill built from official Envoy Gateway documentation. The rest of this chapter teaches you what it knows—and how to make it better.

Next: Lesson 1 — Ingress Fundamentals

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Reflect on Your Skill

Before moving on, consider:

• What patterns from the official docs did your skill capture? Gateway and HTTPRoute are the core resources. Did your skill include BackendTrafficPolicy for rate limiting? SecurityPolicy for authentication?
• What is missing that you will add as you learn Gateway API, rate limiting, and KEDA? You will likely add TLS configuration with CertManager, canary deployment patterns with traffic splitting, and KEDA ScaledObjects for autoscaling. Each lesson in this module strengthens your skill.
• How does this skill compare to your Kubernetes skill from Sub-Module 2? Traffic engineering operates at a higher layer—your Kubernetes skill handles pods and deployments, while this skill handles external traffic routing to those workloads.