Skaffold Cheat Sheet

Overview

Skaffold is a command-line tool by Google that facilitates continuous development for Kubernetes-native applications. It automates the workflow of building container images, pushing them to registries, and deploying to Kubernetes clusters. Skaffold watches source files and automatically rebuilds and redeploys when changes are detected.

Skaffold supports multiple build tools (Docker, Jib, Buildpacks, ko, Bazel), deploy tools (kubectl, Helm, kustomize, kpt), and tag policies. It is designed for both local development with hot-reload and CI/CD pipelines, with a pluggable architecture that adapts to existing workflows.

Installation

# macOS
brew install skaffold

# Linux
curl -Lo skaffold https://storage.googleapis.com/skaffold/releases/latest/skaffold-linux-amd64
chmod +x skaffold
sudo mv skaffold /usr/local/bin/

# Windows
choco install skaffold

# Verify
skaffold version

Core Commands

Command	Description
skaffold init	Generate skaffold.yaml for a project
skaffold dev	Continuous build and deploy (watch mode)
skaffold run	One-time build and deploy
skaffold build	Build images only
skaffold deploy	Deploy pre-built images
skaffold render	Render Kubernetes manifests
skaffold delete	Delete deployed resources
skaffold debug	Dev mode with debugger support
skaffold diagnose	Diagnose configuration issues
skaffold fix	Fix outdated skaffold.yaml schema

Configuration

Basic skaffold.yaml

apiVersion: skaffold/v4beta11
kind: Config
metadata:
  name: my-app

build:
  artifacts:
    - image: my-app
      docker:
        dockerfile: Dockerfile
      sync:
        manual:
          - src: 'src/**/*.js'
            dest: /app/src

deploy:
  kubectl:
    manifests:
      - k8s/*.yaml

portForward:
  - resourceType: service
    resourceName: my-app
    port: 8080
    localPort: 8080

Multi-Service Project

apiVersion: skaffold/v4beta11
kind: Config
metadata:
  name: fullstack-app

build:
  artifacts:
    - image: frontend
      context: frontend
      docker:
        dockerfile: Dockerfile
    - image: backend
      context: backend
      docker:
        dockerfile: Dockerfile
    - image: worker
      context: worker

deploy:
  helm:
    releases:
      - name: my-app
        chartPath: helm/my-app
        setValueTemplates:
          frontend.image: "{{.IMAGE_FULLY_QUALIFIED_frontend}}"
          backend.image: "{{.IMAGE_FULLY_QUALIFIED_backend}}"
          worker.image: "{{.IMAGE_FULLY_QUALIFIED_worker}}"

Build Configuration

Docker Build

build:
  artifacts:
    - image: my-app
      docker:
        dockerfile: Dockerfile
        buildArgs:
          NODE_ENV: production
        target: runtime
        cacheFrom:
          - my-app:latest

Buildpacks

build:
  artifacts:
    - image: my-app
      buildpacks:
        builder: gcr.io/buildpacks/builder:v1
        env:
          - GOOGLE_RUNTIME_VERSION=20

File Sync (Hot Reload)

build:
  artifacts:
    - image: my-app
      sync:
        manual:
          - src: 'src/**/*.py'
            dest: /app
        infer:
          - '**/*.css'
          - '**/*.html'

Deploy Configuration

kubectl

deploy:
  kubectl:
    manifests:
      - k8s/deployment.yaml
      - k8s/service.yaml
    flags:
      global:
        - --namespace=dev

Helm

deploy:
  helm:
    releases:
      - name: my-release
        chartPath: charts/my-app
        valuesFiles:
          - values.yaml
          - values-dev.yaml
        setValues:
          replicaCount: 2
        namespace: dev
        createNamespace: true

Kustomize

deploy:
  kustomize:
    paths:
      - kustomize/overlays/dev

Advanced Usage

Profiles

profiles:
  - name: dev
    activation:
      - env: ENV=dev
    build:
      local:
        push: false
    deploy:
      kubectl:
        manifests:
          - k8s/dev/*.yaml

  - name: production
    build:
      googleCloudBuild:
        projectId: my-project
    deploy:
      kubectl:
        manifests:
          - k8s/prod/*.yaml

# Use a profile
skaffold dev -p dev
skaffold run -p production

Custom Actions and Hooks

deploy:
  kubectl:
    hooks:
      before:
        - host:
            command: ["sh", "-c", "echo 'Pre-deploy hook'"]
      after:
        - container:
            podName: my-app-*
            command: ["python", "manage.py", "migrate"]

Debug Mode

# Start with remote debugging
skaffold debug

# Automatically configures debug ports:
# Go: Delve on port 56268
# Node.js: --inspect on port 9229
# Python: debugpy on port 5678
# Java: JDWP on port 5005

CI/CD Pipeline Usage

# Build and push images only
skaffold build --file-output=build.json

# Deploy from build artifacts
skaffold deploy -a build.json

# Render manifests for GitOps
skaffold render -a build.json --output=rendered.yaml

# Run tests after deploy
skaffold verify

Troubleshooting

Issue	Solution
Image not updating	Check tag policy; try skaffold dev --force
Sync not working	Verify sync paths match container file structure
Port forward fails	Check if port is already in use; verify service name
Build slow	Enable caching; use sync instead of rebuild
Cluster not reachable	Check kubectl config current-context
Schema version mismatch	Run skaffold fix to update skaffold.yaml

# Diagnose issues
skaffold diagnose

# Verbose logging
skaffold dev -v debug

# Clean up deployed resources
skaffold delete

# Check effective configuration
skaffold inspect