Managing Implementation

Keep manifests in Git with overlays per environment (Kustomize or Helm values), render them in CI, and deliver them with Cloud Deploy or Config Sync, never with manual kubectl in production.

An ordered progression of targets (e.g., dev, staging, prod), each with deployment strategies and optional approval requirements; releases are promoted through them.

An immutable snapshot of rendered manifests and artifacts for a specific version, which is rolled out to targets in order.

Skaffold, which defines how to render (Kustomize, Helm, raw) and deploy the application.

Set requireApproval on the production target. Rollouts wait for a principal with the approver role (clouddeploy.approver) to approve.

Config (endpoints, feature flags, sizes) is externalized per environment (env vars, ConfigMaps, Secret Manager), while the same container image is promoted.