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kiprotichgidii
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service-mesh-observability

Implement distributed tracing, metrics, and dashboards for Istio and Linkerd service meshes.

Updated May 8, 2026
Search Tags:#kubernetes#observability#service mesh#grafana#istio#prometheus#distributed tracing
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/kiprotichgidii/agent-skills --skill service-mesh-observability-kiprotichgidii
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: service-mesh-observability
Source: https://github.com/kiprotichgidii/agent-skills/tree/main/skills/service-mesh-observability
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/kiprotichgidii/agent-skills --skill service-mesh-observability-kiprotichgidii

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve? Service meshes obscure traffic between microservices, making it hard to diagnose latency, errors, and dependencies. This Skill provides ready-to-use configurations for collecting metrics, traces, and logs across Istio and Linkerd deployments. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Metrics & Dashboards: Prometheus scrape configs, PromQL queries for golden signals, and Grafana dashboard JSON for request rate, error rate, and P99 latency. - Distributed Tracing: Jaeger and OpenTelemetry Collector setups with configurable sampling rates for dev and production. - Visualization & Alerting: Kiali topology configuration, Linkerd viz CLI commands, and PrometheusRule alerts for error rate, latency, and certificate expiry. - Use Case: When P99 latency spikes in your Istio mesh, apply the provided PromQL queries and Grafana dashboard to pinpoint the slow service, then use Jaeger traces to find the bottleneck span. ## Quick Start Set up Prometheus metrics collection and a Grafana dashboard for my Istio service mesh using the provided templates.

Frequently Asked Questions about service-mesh-observability

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I set up distributed tracing in Istio?▼

Enable tracing in the IstioOperator meshConfig with a Zipkin address pointing to Jaeger, then deploy the Jaeger all-in-one collector. Set sampling to 100% in development and 1-10% in production to control storage costs.

What PromQL queries monitor Istio service mesh metrics?▼

Use istio_requests_total for request and error rates, and istio_request_duration_milliseconds_bucket with histogram_quantile for P99 latency. Filter by reporter="destination" and group by destination_service_name for per-service views.

Istio vs Linkerd for service mesh observability?▼

Istio integrates with Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, and Kiali for deep configurability. Linkerd offers the lighter viz extension with CLI commands like top, tap, routes, and edges for quick traffic inspection without extra setup.

Does Istio support OpenTelemetry tracing?▼

Yes, Istio Telemetry v2 supports OpenTelemetry providers. Deploy an OTel Collector with OTLP and Zipkin receivers, then reference the otel provider in a Telemetry resource with a configured sampling percentage.

What trace sampling rate should I use in production?▼

Use 1-10% sampling in production to balance visibility against storage costs, and 100% in development for full debugging detail. Over-sampling in production significantly increases observability infrastructure costs.

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