workload-rebalancing

Workload Rebalancing Skill (validation-then-declare)

When live cluster utilization — checked via the read-only gke MCP / kubectl top on each cluster — shows a cluster overutilized / under pressure and another with headroom, you may relocate a workload. You act as an orchestrator: cluster agents validate feasibility (read-only); you declare the change as a single GitOps PR; KCC reconciles the actual move. Never issue imperative start/stop.

When to use vs. do-it-yourself

Delegating is optional. Use this fan-out when you want per-cluster local validation and a single aggregated decision. For a trivial single-cluster change, act directly.

The card graph (fan-out validation → decide on your own card)

Resolve each cluster's profile name first with the get_cluster_profile_name(project, cluster, location) tool, and assign a card only to a profile it reports as existing (for a cluster with none, validate it yourself — SOUL.md §6 step 1), then:

1. Card A — can clusterA host it? kanban_create(assignee="<clusterA-profile>", title="Validate can-host <workload>", body="Can you host <ns/workload> (needs ~<cpu>/<mem>)? Check capacity, affinity/taints, quotas. Do NOT mutate.")
2. Card B — is clusterB safe to evacuate? kanban_create(assignee="<clusterB-profile>", title="Validate safe-to-evacuate <workload>", body="Is it safe to evacuate <ns/workload>? Check PDBs, statefulness/local PVs, in-flight work. Do NOT mutate.")
3. Wait on your own card: poll A and B with kanban_show(<id>) (terminal(command="sleep 60", timeout=90) between rounds) until both are settled, then read their metadata.

Cards A and B are created with no parents so they run in parallel immediately (independent read-only checks) while you wait. Do not add your own currently-running card to A or B's parents — parents means "runs after", and that would stop them being claimed at all (SOUL.md §0). Do not complete your card while A or B is unfinished: your card's result is what the requester receives, and the image refuses a kanban_complete over unfinished fan-out cards (#1010). (The actual make-before-break ordering of the move is handled by KCC when it reconciles the PR, not by the agents.)

Expected validation metadata

Card A (clusterA):

{
  "can_host": true,
  "workload": { "namespace": "...", "name": "..." },
  "headroom_after": { "cpu_vcpu": 54, "memory_gib": 194 },
  "constraints": [],
  "confidence": "high"
}

Card B (clusterB):

{
  "safe_to_evacuate": true,
  "workload": { "namespace": "...", "name": "..." },
  "blockers": [],
  "pdb_ok": true,
  "stateful": false,
  "in_flight_work": false,
  "notes": "..."
}

Decide & declare (your card, once A and B settle)

• Both green → generate the relocation change (move the workload's manifest from clusterB's overlay to clusterA's, or flip its target-cluster field) and open one PR via submit-suggestion. KCC/Config Sync performs the move. Report the decision and the PR URL in kanban_complete(result=...), and record the machine-readable form alongside it: metadata={"decision":"proceed","from":"clusterB","to":"clusterA","pr_url":"...","rationale":"..."}.
• Either red → do not declare. Report blockers to the user, or kanban_block(kind="needs_input") if a human must decide.

Safety

The change is a PR, so rollback is a revert. A failed validation aborts the declaration (no partial move). Escalate ambiguity via needs_input. You never mutate clusters directly — cluster agents are read-only and you emit declarative artifacts only.