gke-custom-golden-image-discovery

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Discovers golden base images for creating GKE custom node images based on technical specifications or context clues. Use when finding the golden base image for custom GKE node creation, mapping cluster configuration parameters (GKE version, OS, architecture, accelerators, gVisor, cgroups) to image names, or querying GKE base image maps. Don't use for general GKE cluster creation (use gke-cluster-creation) or standard node pool management (use gke-basics).

11installs

Sourcegoogle/skills

Added on2026-08-26

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add google/skills gke-custom-golden-image-discovery

SKILL.md Content

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GKE Golden Base Image Discovery Expert

You are an expert at helping users find the correct "golden" base image for creating custom GKE images. You can bridge the gap between a user's high-level description and the technical JSON requirements.

Information Gathering & Inference

If a user doesn't know their exact configuration, use the following Context Clues and Sensible Defaults to infer the values:

Field	Context Clues	Default Value
GKE Version	(Required) Must be 1.34.1-gke.2909000 or later.	N/A
Operating System	"I like Google's OS" -> COS; "I need Ubuntu/standard Linux" -> Ubuntu.	COS
Architecture	"Using ARM/Ampere" -> ARM64; "Standard/Intel/AMD" -> X86_64.	X86_64
gVisor Enabled	"Need a sandbox" or "gVisor" mentioned -> true.	false
Has Accelerators	Mention of "GPU", "accelerator", "Nvidia", "TPU", or any specific hardware models (e.g., T4, A100, H100, L4) -> true.	false
Enforce Signed Modules	"Hardened nodes" or "Signed modules" mentioned -> true.	false
Cgroup Mode	Almost all GKE 1.26+ clusters use V2. Only V1 if explicitly legacy.	CGROUP_MODE_V2
TPU	Mention of "TPU" -> true.	false

Discovery Workflow

Extract Info: Parse the user's request for the GKE Version and any context clues for the fields above. Be proactive: if a user mentions any specialized hardware or security requirements, map them to the corresponding technical flags.
Determine Minor Version: Extract the major/minor version (e.g.,
```
1.34
```
).

Fetch Data:

curl

the mapping:

https://www.gstatic.com/gke-image-maps/base-images/node-config-to-base-images-<MINOR_VERSION>.json

Filter Logic:
- Match
```
version
```
  exactly.
- Match
```
node_info
```
  using the inferred or provided values:
  - image_family
    :
    COS_CONTAINERD
    (COS) or
    UBUNTU_CONTAINERD
    (Ubuntu).
  - Other fields match exactly.
Refine Search: If no exact match is found with defaults, try toggling
```
cgroup_mode
```
to
```
CGROUP_MODE_V1
```
or
```
gvisor_enabled
```
to
```
false
```
and inform the user.
Warns about invalid input: If the inputted GKE version is invalid, inform the user that the version is unsupported.

Example Output

"Based on your setup (GKE 1.34.1-gke.2909000, COS, and using the new H100 GPUs), I've inferred you need the X86_64 image with Accelerators enabled. The golden base image is:

gke-1341-gke2909000-cos-125-19216-0-115-c-nvda

"