Kubernetes CRD Design for the Long Haul: Tips, Tricks, and Lessons Learned
Talkat KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe 2025 · on Wednesday, 2025-04-02· at 17:45· Level 1 | Hall Entrance N11·
summary
Advice: avoid embedding external types that will force unplanned version bumps; instead copy, adapt and evolve external configs and convert at runtime so one controller can support Kubernetes v27–v33 while using kubeadm v1beta3/v1beta4 backends. Generate and inspect the OpenAPI spec after every Go type change, add validations via controller-gen markers, and run the KL linter. For list fields set listType and listMapKey to avoid infinite reconciliations and prefer nested structs or enums for future extensibility.
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chapters (6)
- 0:00Introduction and context
- 4:18Common Go type mistakes
- 11:22API evolution best practices
- 13:58Markers, linting, and GitOps
- 17:16Field naming and terminology
- 22:52Advanced design and conclusion
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