About

Imported from jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace (plugins/saas-packs/castai-pack/skills/castai-prod-checklist/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace --skill castai-prod-checklist. Copyright stays with the author (MIT).

CAST AI Production Checklist

Name: castai-prod-checklist
Author: jeremylongshore

Overview

Complete checklist for enabling CAST AI cost optimization on a production Kubernetes cluster. Covers Phase 1 (monitoring) through Phase 2 (full automation) with validation steps at each stage.

Prerequisites

CAST AI tested on a staging cluster first
Production API key (Full Access)
Change management approval for node lifecycle changes

Instructions

Complete the phases in order and preserve evidence for every checked item. Start in monitoring-only mode, verify the production cluster identity and baseline metrics, then request the approved change window before enabling automation. Use a two-person review for capacity limits, disruption budgets, and the emergency-disable procedure; do not copy staging keys, policies, or test evidence into the production record without revalidation.

Phase 1: Monitoring Only

Agent installed with read-only key
Agent pod healthy: kubectl get pods -n castai-agent
Console shows cluster as "Connected"
Savings report generating (wait 24h for full data)
Review savings estimate before enabling automation

Phase 2: Autoscaling Enabled

Workload Autoscaler

Workload autoscaler installed
Critical deployments annotated with min/max resource bounds
Anti-shrink cooldown set (300s minimum)
Memory headroom >= 20% for production workloads

Security

API key in secrets manager (not Helm values files)
Kvisor security agent installed
Network policies applied to castai-agent namespace
RBAC reviewed and minimized
Key rotation scheduled (90-day interval)

Monitoring and Alerting

Alert on agent pod restarts: kube_pod_container_status_restarts_total{namespace="castai-agent"}
Alert on API errors in agent logs
CAST AI console email notifications enabled
Savings report reviewed weekly
Dashboard tracking spot vs on-demand node ratio

Rollback Procedure

# Disable autoscaling immediately (keeps agent monitoring)
curl -X PUT -H "X-API-Key: ${CASTAI_API_KEY}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  "https://api.cast.ai/v1/kubernetes/clusters/${CASTAI_CLUSTER_ID}/policies" \
  -d '{"enabled": false}'

# Or remove all CAST AI components
helm uninstall castai-evictor -n castai-agent
helm uninstall cluster-controller -n castai-agent
# Keep the agent for monitoring if desired

Error Handling

Condition	Response
Agent offline or API authentication fails	Keep automation disabled; verify secret reference, RBAC, and egress before retrying.
Policy response differs from the approved limits	Stop rollout, restore the prior policy, and reopen change review.
Eviction or latency alert fires	Disable autoscaling using the tested path and engage the workload owner.
Rollback command cannot be exercised safely	Do not proceed to go-live; repair the runbook and test it in staging.

Validation Commands

# Final pre-go-live verification
echo "=== CAST AI Production Validation ==="

# Agent healthy
kubectl get pods -n castai-agent -o wide

# All components running
helm list -n castai-agent

# Policies correct
curl -s -H "X-API-Key: ${CASTAI_API_KEY}" \
  "https://api.cast.ai/v1/kubernetes/clusters/${CASTAI_CLUSTER_ID}/policies" \
  | jq '{enabled, unschedulablePods: .unschedulablePods.enabled, downscaler: .nodeDownscaler.enabled, spot: .spotInstances.enabled}'

# Savings estimate
curl -s -H "X-API-Key: ${CASTAI_API_KEY}" \
  "https://api.cast.ai/v1/kubernetes/clusters/${CASTAI_CLUSTER_ID}/savings" \
  | jq '{monthly: .monthlySavings, percent: .savingsPercentage}'

Output

Create a production-readiness record that ties each checklist item to its evidence, accountable owner, approval, validation timestamp, and tested rollback. A healthy agent alone does not authorize go-live: policy limits, disruption controls, monitoring, and the emergency-disable path must all be confirmed against the intended production cluster.

Examples

For a production launch, capture a redacted policy response, current Helm release state, agent health, alert test, and savings-baseline review in the change record. If an approval or rollback test is missing, leave autoscaling disabled and resolve that gap before enabling it for production workloads.

Resources

Next Steps

For version upgrades, see castai-upgrade-migration.

Use it

Copy one of these into your project. Installing also returns the manifest and these snippets.

yaml

targets:
  - https://api.opensmartroute.ai/api/v1/registry/jeremylongshore-tons-of-skills-marketplace-castai-prod-c-50bab2/manifest   # or paste the manifest below

Manifest

An Open Capability Manifest: the router reads it to know what this does, what it costs and when to pick it.

jeremylongshore-tons-of-skills-marketplace-castai-prod-c-50bab2.ocm.jsonjson

{
  "ocm": "1",
  "id": "jeremylongshore-tons-of-skills-marketplace-castai-prod-c-50bab2",
  "kind": "skill",
  "name": "castai-prod-checklist",
  "description": "Production readiness checklist for CAST AI cluster onboarding. Use when going live with CAST AI autoscaling, validating Phase 2 setup, or preparing for production cost optimization. Trigger with phrases like \"cast ai production\", \"cast ai go-live\", \"cast ai checklist\", \"cast ai launch\".",
  "publisher": "jeremylongshore",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "capabilities": {
    "domains": [
      "coding",
      "hr"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "skill-md",
      "saas",
      "kubernetes",
      "cost-optimization",
      "castai",
      "skills-sh"
    ],
    "languages": [
      "en"
    ]
  },
  "quality_prior": 0.6,
  "examples": [
    "Production readiness checklist for CAST AI cluster onboarding. Use when going live with CAST AI autoscaling, validating Phase 2 setup, or preparing for production cost optimization. Trigger with phrases like \"cast ai production\", \"cast ai go-live\", \"cast ai checklist\", \"cast ai launch\"."
  ],
  "primary": false,
  "metadata": {
    "source": {
      "provider": "skills.sh",
      "repository": "https://github.com/jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace",
      "path": "plugins/saas-packs/castai-pack/skills/castai-prod-checklist/SKILL.md",
      "ref": "HEAD",
      "url": "https://github.com/jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace/blob/HEAD/plugins/saas-packs/castai-pack/skills/castai-prod-checklist/SKILL.md",
      "key": "jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace/plugins/saas-packs/castai-pack/skills/castai-prod-checklist/SKILL.md"
    },
    "compatibility": "Designed for Claude Code",
    "allowed_tools": [
      "Read,",
      "Bash(kubectl:*),",
      "Bash(curl:*),",
      "Bash(helm:*),",
      "Grep"
    ],
    "license": "MIT"
  },
  "instructions": "# CAST AI Production Checklist\n\n## Overview\n\nComplete checklist for enabling CAST AI cost optimization on a production Kubernetes cluster. Covers Phase 1 (monitoring) through Phase 2 (full automation) with validation steps at each stage.\n\n## Prerequisites\n\n- CAST AI tested on a staging cluster first\n- Production API key (Full Access)\n- Change management approval for node lifecycle changes\n\n## Instructions\n\nComplete the phases in order and preserve evidence for every checked item.\nStart in monitoring-only mode, verify the production cluster identity and\nbaseline metrics, then request the approv",
  "cost": {
    "context_tokens": 1305
  }
}

Fetch it by URL: GET /api/v1/registry/jeremylongshore-tons-of-skills-marketplace-castai-prod-c-50bab2/manifest?version=1.0.0

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