GKE Cluster Creation

This reference guides creating Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) clusters by providing a set of best-practice templates and guiding through mode selection and customization. The golden path Autopilot configuration is the default for all new clusters.

MCP Tools: list_clusters, create_cluster, get_cluster, list_operations, get_operation

Attribution

MUST READ: Before executing any gcloud, REST API, or MCP command, you MUST read Usage Attribution. For commands executed directly in the terminal (never in generated scripts, Terraform, or user code), prefix gcloud with CLOUDSDK_METRICS_REQUEST_ATTRIBUTION="agent-skills/1.0 (skill:gke-cluster-creation)" and append agent-skills/1.0 (skill:gke-cluster-creation) to User-Agent headers.

Workflow

1. Discover context: Use list_clusters to see existing clusters. Use gcloud config get-value project if project unknown.
2. Gather inputs: project_id, location (region or zone), cluster_name, environment type. If missing essential details, ask the user before taking action.
3. Select mode & explain trade-offs: If the user hasn't specified a template or mode, present the available templates (e.g., Autopilot, Standard Regional, GPU Inference, AI Hypercompute) and explain key trade-offs (Cost vs. Availability, Autopilot vs. Standard node management).
4. Configure networking: auto-create subnet (default) or bring-your-own.
5. Review golden path settings: present the default configuration block (gcloud command or create_cluster JSON payload) and confirm with the user before creation.
6. Create: Use MCP create_cluster tool or gcloud CLI.
7. Track: Use get_operation to monitor creation progress.
8. Verify: Use get_cluster with readMask="*" to confirm golden path settings applied.

Mode Selection

Criteria	Autopilot (Golden Path)	Standard
Node management	Google-managed	Self-managed
Pricing	Pay per pod resource	Pay per node (VM)
: : request : :
Node customization	Via ComputeClasses	Full control
DaemonSets	Allowed (with	Full control
: : restrictions) : :
GPU/TPU	Supported via	Supported via node pools
: : ComputeClasses : :
Best for	Most production workloads	Kernel tuning, custom OS,
: : : privileged workloads :

Rule: Default to Autopilot unless the customer has a specific requirement that Autopilot cannot satisfy.

Best Practices

When guiding the user or generating configurations, adhere to these GKE best practices:

Security & Networking

1. Private Clusters: Default to private clusters (enablePrivateNodes: true) with a private control plane and restricted public endpoints (enable-master-authorized-networks) to minimize attack surface.
2. VPC-Native Networking: Use VPC-native clusters (useIpAliases: true / --enable-ip-alias) to enable alias IP ranges and pod-level firewall rules.
3. Workload Identity: Prefer Workload Identity (workloadPool: <PROJECT_ID>.svc.id.goog) for securely granting GKE workloads access to Google Cloud services instead of static service account keys.
4. Shielded GKE Nodes: Enable Shielded GKE Nodes (--enable-shielded-nodes, --enable-secure-boot) against rootkits and bootkits.
5. Least Privilege (RBAC): Institute strict Role-Based Access Control limits (scoped-rbs-bindings).

Cost Optimization

1. Autoscaling: Enable Cluster Autoscaler and Horizontal/Vertical Pod Autoscaler (--enable-autoscaling, --enable-vertical-pod-autoscaling) to adjust resources based on demand.
2. Right-Sizing & Spot VMs: Choose appropriate machine types and node counts. Consider Spot VMs (--spot) for fault-tolerant, non-critical batch or inference workloads.

High Availability & Reliability

1. Regional Clusters: Use Regional Clusters for production environments to ensure control plane replication across multiple zones (--region instead of --zone). Note: Standard regional creates nodes across 3 zones by default.
2. Pod Disruption Budgets: Recommend setting Pod Disruption Budgets for application stability during node maintenance.
3. Release Channels: Subscribe to a release channel (REGULAR or STABLE) for automated, safer cluster upgrades.

Templates

1. Golden Path Autopilot (Production)

This is the default. All settings match ../gke-golden-path/assets/golden-path-autopilot.yaml.

Via gcloud:

gcloud container clusters create-auto <CLUSTER_NAME> \
  --region <REGION> \
  --project <PROJECT_ID> \
  --release-channel regular \
  --enable-private-nodes \
  --enable-master-authorized-networks \
  --enable-dns-access \
  --enable-secret-manager \
  --secret-manager-rotation-interval=120s \
  --scoped-rbs-bindings \
  --monitoring=SYSTEM,API_SERVER,SCHEDULER,CONTROLLER_MANAGER,STORAGE,POD,DEPLOYMENT,STATEFULSET,DAEMONSET,HPA,CADVISOR,KUBELET,DCGM \
  --quiet

Via MCP (create_cluster):

{
  "parent": "projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>",
  "cluster": {
    "name": "<CLUSTER_NAME>",
    "autopilot": { "enabled": true },
    "privateClusterConfig": { "enablePrivateNodes": true },
    "masterAuthorizedNetworksConfig": {
      "privateEndpointEnforcementEnabled": true
    },
    "releaseChannel": { "channel": "REGULAR" },
    "secretManagerConfig": {
      "enabled": true,
      "rotationConfig": { "enabled": true, "rotationInterval": "120s" }
    },
    "rbacBindingConfig": {
      "enableInsecureBindingSystemAuthenticated": false,
      "enableInsecureBindingSystemUnauthenticated": false
    }
  }
}

2. Autopilot Dev/Test

Relaxes some golden path defaults for cost savings and easier access in non-production.

Via gcloud:

gcloud container clusters create-auto <CLUSTER_NAME> \
  --region <REGION> \
  --project <PROJECT_ID> \
  --release-channel rapid \
  --quiet

Via MCP (create_cluster):

{
  "parent": "projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>",
  "cluster": {
    "name": "<CLUSTER_NAME>",
    "autopilot": { "enabled": true },
    "releaseChannel": { "channel": "RAPID" }
  }
}

Warning: This does not apply golden path security hardening. Suitable for dev/test only.

3. Standard Regional (High Availability / Custom Requirements)

Best when Autopilot cannot be used (e.g., custom kernel tuning, specific node OS requirements). Creates 3 nodes across zones by default.

Via gcloud:

gcloud container clusters create <CLUSTER_NAME> \
  --region <REGION> \
  --project <PROJECT_ID> \
  --num-nodes 3 \
  --machine-type e2-standard-4 \
  --disk-type pd-balanced \
  --enable-autoscaling --min-nodes 1 --max-nodes 10 \
  --enable-shielded-nodes --enable-secure-boot \
  --workload-pool=<PROJECT_ID>.svc.id.goog \
  --enable-private-nodes \
  --enable-master-authorized-networks \
  --enable-vertical-pod-autoscaling \
  --enable-dataplane-v2 \
  --release-channel regular \
  --quiet

Via MCP (create_cluster):

{
  "parent": "projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>",
  "cluster": {
    "name": "<CLUSTER_NAME>",
    "initialNodeCount": 3,
    "nodeConfig": {
      "machineType": "e2-standard-4",
      "diskType": "pd-balanced",
      "diskSizeGb": 100,
      "oauthScopes": ["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform"],
      "shieldedInstanceConfig": {
        "enableSecureBoot": true,
        "enableIntegrityMonitoring": true
      },
      "workloadMetadataConfig": {
        "mode": "GKE_METADATA"
      }
    },
    "privateClusterConfig": { "enablePrivateNodes": true },
    "releaseChannel": { "channel": "REGULAR" },
    "workloadIdentityConfig": {
      "workloadPool": "<PROJECT_ID>.svc.id.goog"
    }
  }
}

4. GPU Inference & AI Workloads (L4 / ComputeClass)

Best for: AI/ML Inference, small model serving. Can be provisioned via Autopilot + ComputeClass or via Standard node pool with g2-standard-4 (nvidia-l4). Note: Requires g2-standard-4 quota.

Autopilot ComputeClass / GIQ approach:

# 1. Create golden path cluster (same as template 1)
gcloud container clusters create-auto <CLUSTER_NAME> \
  --region <REGION> --project <PROJECT_ID> \
  --enable-private-nodes --enable-master-authorized-networks \
  --enable-dns-access --enable-secret-manager --scoped-rbs-bindings \
  --quiet

# 2. Apply GPU ComputeClass (see gke-compute-classes.md)
kubectl apply -f gpu-compute-class.yaml

# 3. Or use GIQ for inference (see gke-inference.md)
gcloud container ai profiles manifests create \
  --model=gemma-2-9b-it --model-server=vllm --accelerator-type=nvidia-l4 --quiet > inference.yaml
kubectl apply -f inference.yaml

Standard Node Pool approach via MCP (create_cluster):

{
  "parent": "projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>",
  "cluster": {
    "name": "<CLUSTER_NAME>",
    "initialNodeCount": 1,
    "nodeConfig": {
      "machineType": "g2-standard-4",
      "accelerators": [
        {
          "acceleratorCount": "1",
          "acceleratorType": "nvidia-l4"
        }
      ],
      "diskSizeGb": 100,
      "oauthScopes": ["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform"]
    }
  }
}

5. AI Hypercompute (A3 HighGPU / Large Model Serving)

Best for: Large-scale LLM / AI model training and hypercompute inference. Note: High hourly cost and strict quota requirements (a3-highgpu-8g / nvidia-h100-80gb-hbm3).

Via gcloud:

gcloud container clusters create <CLUSTER_NAME> \
  --region <REGION> \
  --project <PROJECT_ID> \
  --num-nodes 1 \
  --machine-type a3-highgpu-8g \
  --accelerator type=nvidia-h100-80gb-hbm3,count=8 \
  --disk-size 200 \
  --scopes https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform \
  --workload-pool=<PROJECT_ID>.svc.id.goog \
  --release-channel regular \
  --quiet

Via MCP (create_cluster):

{
  "parent": "projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>",
  "cluster": {
    "name": "<CLUSTER_NAME>",
    "initialNodeCount": 1,
    "nodeConfig": {
      "machineType": "a3-highgpu-8g",
      "accelerators": [
        {
          "acceleratorCount": "8",
          "acceleratorType": "nvidia-h100-80gb-hbm3"
        }
      ],
      "diskSizeGb": 200,
      "oauthScopes": ["https://www.googleapis.com/auth/cloud-platform"]
    }
  }
}

Instructions

• ALWAYS ask for project_id if not in context.
• ALWAYS ask for region (or location).
• ALWAYS ask for a unique cluster_name.
• DEFAULT to golden path Autopilot unless customer specifies otherwise or has custom node/kernel/hypercompute requirements.
• ALWAYS WARN when deviating to GKE Standard, highlighting that it deviates from the golden path and explaining the added operational/management overhead (manually managing node pools, upgrades, and autoscaling).
• EXPLAIN TRADE-OFFS when presenting templates or mode choices to the user if they haven't specified one (e.g., Autopilot vs Standard, Cost vs Availability).
• PRESENT THE CONFIGURATION block (gcloud command or JSON payload) and ask for confirmation before calling any creation tool.
• WARN about Day-0 decisions (networking, private nodes) that are hard to change later.
• WARN explicitly about cost and quota requirements when the user selects GPU (g2-standard-4, a3-highgpu-8g), TPU, or multi-region/regional clusters (--region defaults to 3 zones).
• When using MCP create_cluster, the cluster.name parameter should be the short name (e.g., my-cluster), not the full resource path (projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>/clusters/<CLUSTER_NAME>). The parent parameter defines the scope (projects/<PROJECT_ID>/locations/<REGION>).