Labsco
datadog-labs logo

verify-ssi

★ 138

by datadog-labs · part of datadog-labs/agent-skills

Verify Single Step Instrumentation (SSI) is working end-to-end on Kubernetes — SSI automatically instruments applications for APM without code changes. Only…

🔥🔥✓ VerifiedFreeQuick setup
#automation#devops#git#monitoring
🧩 One of 7 skills in the datadog-labs/agent-skills package — works on its own, and pairs well with its siblings.

This is the playbook your agent receives when the skill activates — you don't need to read it to use the skill, but it's here to audit before installing.

name: verify-ssi description: Verify Single Step Instrumentation (SSI) is working end-to-end on Kubernetes — SSI automatically instruments applications for APM without code changes. Only use after enable-ssi has run. metadata: version: "1.0.0" author: datadog-labs repository: https://github.com/datadog-labs/agent-skills tags: datadog,apm,kubernetes,ssi,verification,instrumentation alwaysApply: "false"

Verify APM SSI on Kubernetes

Before doing anything else: Fully resolve all variables in ## Context to resolve before acting. Do not begin Step 1 until every variable has a concrete value.

Triggers

Invoke this skill when the user expresses intent to:

  • Confirm SSI is working after enabling APM
  • Check whether pods are being instrumented
  • Verify the tracer is running and reporting telemetry
  • Confirm tracer config is applied correctly

Do NOT invoke this skill if:

  • SSI has not been enabled yet — run enable-ssi first
  • Pods are not being instrumented at all — use troubleshoot-ssi

Context to resolve before acting

VariableHow to resolve
CLUSTER_NAMECheck spec.global.clusterName in datadog-agent.yaml, or kubectl config current-context
ENVCheck tags.datadoghq.com/env label on the application Deployment
SERVICE_NAMECheck tags.datadoghq.com/service label on the application Deployment

Step 1: Confirm Pods are Instrumented

Claude runs

kubectl get pod -l app=<APP_LABEL> -n <APP_NAMESPACE> \
  -o jsonpath='{.items[0].spec.initContainers[*].name}'

If the output includes datadog-lib-<language>-init and datadog-init-apm-inject — SSI init containers are injected.

ERROR: Init containers missing — pod was not restarted after SSI was enabled, or namespace targeting is not matching. Restart the pod and recheck.

Step 2: Confirm the Tracer is Reporting Telemetry

Claude runs

DD_SITE=<DD_SITE> pup apm services list --env <ENV> --from 1h

If <SERVICE_NAME> appears in the services list with isTraced: true — continue to Step 3.

ERROR: Service missing — send some traffic to the app first, then retry:

Claude runs

# Port-forward and send test traffic
kubectl port-forward deployment/<DEPLOYMENT_NAME> 8099:8000 -n <APP_NAMESPACE> &
sleep 2 && for i in $(seq 1 10); do curl -s -o /dev/null http://localhost:8099/; done
sleep 30 && kill %1 2>/dev/null
DD_SITE=<DD_SITE> pup apm services list --env <ENV> --from 10m

ERROR: Still missing after traffic — check the agent's trace receiver: kubectl exec -n <AGENT_NAMESPACE> <AGENT_POD> -c agent -- agent status | grep -A 10 "Receiver (previous minute)". If receiver shows 0 traces, go to troubleshoot-ssi.

Done

Exit when ALL of the following are true:

  • Step 1: target pods appear in instrumented-pods list
  • Step 2: service appears in tracers list with active status
  • Step 3: tracer config matches what was set in DatadogAgent

If any check fails, go to troubleshoot-ssi.

When all steps pass, automatically proceed to onboarding-summary now — do not ask the user for permission.

Security constraints

  • Never write a raw API key into any file or chat message
  • Never run kubectl delete without user confirmation