How to Use the Kubernetes Pod Security Admission Rollout Planner Prompt to Enforce Without Breaking Workloads

PodSecurityPolicy was removed in Kubernetes 1.25, and many clusters upgraded without turning on anything to replace it. Pod Security Admission is built in and simple to enable, since it is just namespace labels, but switching a busy namespace straight to enforce can block deployments the moment a pod restarts. The safe path is to warn and audit first, fix the workloads, and enforce later. The Kubernetes Pod Security Admission Rollout Planner: Namespace Labels for Baseline and Restricted, Audit and Warn First, Dry-Run Checks, securityContext Fixes, and Exemption Rules prompt plans that path for your cluster: target levels per namespace, exact label commands per phase, dry-run checks, securityContext fixes, and narrow exemptions.

What the prompt produces

1. A target level per namespace (privileged, baseline, or restricted) with the reason and pinned version labels.
2. A phased label plan with warn and audit first and enforce later, as exact kubectl commands.
3. Dry-run checks using server side dry-run labeling, plus how to read the warnings.
4. securityContext fixes as YAML patches to meet the restricted level.
5. An exemption plan with owners and review dates.
6. A rollout calendar inside your change window, with a rollback step.
7. A policy engine overlap check if you also run Kyverno or Gatekeeper.

How to fill the inputs

ClusterInfo gives the Kubernetes version, distribution, and any policy engine. The version matters because the prompt pins labels to your minor version.

NamespaceList names each namespace, its owner team, and the workload types inside.

CurrentViolations is the output of a server side dry-run label command or audit log entries. Paste the warnings as they appear.

WorkloadSpecs includes the pod specs or securityContext blocks that fail today.

ExceptionRequests lists anything teams say needs extra privilege, such as CI runners or node agents.

RolloutWindow describes your timeline and change process.

Reading the example output

The example plans a rollout on a managed cluster running 1.30 with four namespaces. The web API and reporting jobs target restricted. CI runners that build images with Docker in Docker and a monitoring namespace with a node exporter stay privileged, isolated in their own namespaces with owners and a 90 day review.

The dry-run warning for the API namespace lists four failing fields. The YAML patch fixes all four: run as non root, disallow privilege escalation, drop all capabilities, and use the RuntimeDefault seccomp profile. Since the image already runs as a non root user, the change is low risk. The calendar puts warn and audit labels on in week one, ships the patch, reruns the dry-run, and enforces in week two. The rollback is a single label change.

Tips for better results

• Pin the version label. Using latest can change results after a cluster upgrade.
• Run the dry-run command before and after every fix and paste the new warnings back in.
• Talk to namespace owners before enforcing. A warning in their deploy logs should not be a surprise.
• Plan to shrink exemptions over time, such as moving CI builds to rootless tools.

Mistakes to avoid

• Do not enforce restricted before the warnings are gone.
• Do not drop a privileged agent into a shared namespace to avoid labeling.
• Do not assume you can edit the API server admission config on a managed cluster.

Who it is for

Platform engineers, Kubernetes cluster admins, DevSecOps teams, and application teams asked to make their workloads pass restricted.

A practical routine

Label every new namespace with warn and audit on day one, review audit findings each sprint, and move namespaces to enforce once they are clean.

Related PromptDig links

Plan your rollout with the Kubernetes Pod Security Admission Rollout Planner: Namespace Labels for Baseline and Restricted, Audit and Warn First, Dry-Run Checks, securityContext Fixes, and Exemption Rules prompt. For more DevOps and security prompts, Browse more prompts. If you have a cluster workflow that saves your team time, Share a prompt.