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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

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Prerequisites

• enable-ssi is complete
• Application pods have been restarted since SSI was enabled

pup-cli: check, install, and authenticate

Claude runs

pup --version

If not found:

Claude runs

brew tap datadog-labs/pack
brew install pup

Check auth:

pup auth status --site <DD_SITE>

If not authenticated:

Claude runs

pup auth login --site <DD_SITE>

This opens a browser tab for OAuth. Complete the login there — Claude will continue once the command exits.

If valid token — proceed. ERROR: No browser available — use API key fallback: export DD_APP_KEY=<your-app-key>

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Context to resolve before acting

Variable	How to resolve
CLUSTER_NAME	Check spec.global.clusterName in datadog-agent.yaml, or kubectl config current-context
ENV	Check tags.datadoghq.com/env label on the application Deployment
SERVICE_NAME	Check tags.datadoghq.com/service label on the application Deployment

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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.

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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.

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Step 3: Confirm Tracer Configuration

Only run this step if ddTraceConfigs was explicitly configured in enable-ssi (e.g. profiling, AppSec, Data Streams). If basic SSI was set up without ddTraceConfigs, skip this step. No ddTraceConfigs means there is nothing to check.

The pod spec is the source of truth for whether ddTraceConfigs reached the workload. SSI adds each entry as an env var on the pod's containers.

Run this for a pod in each target that has ddTraceConfigs. For Data Streams, run it once per Deployment in DSM_SERVICES, in that Deployment's namespace, with <LABEL_KEY> set to DSM_LABEL_KEY and <APP_LABEL> to that Deployment's value (both from enable-dsm). Otherwise <LABEL_KEY> is app. A pod matched only by a target without ddTraceConfigs (such as the catch-all default target) should not carry these variables. That is expected, not a failure.

Claude runs

kubectl get pod -l <LABEL_KEY>=<APP_LABEL> -n <APP_NAMESPACE> --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp \
  -o jsonpath='{range .items[-1:].spec.containers[*]}{.name}{":"}{"\n"}{range .env[*]}{"  "}{.name}={.value}{.valueFrom}{"\n"}{end}{end}' | grep -E '^[^ ].*:$|^  DD_'

To see which target the pod matched:

kubectl get pod -l <LABEL_KEY>=<APP_LABEL> -n <APP_NAMESPACE> --sort-by=.metadata.creationTimestamp \
  -o jsonpath='{.items[-1:].metadata.annotations.internal\.apm\.datadoghq\.com/applied-target}'

If every ddTraceConfigs variable for that target appears in the application container with the configured value, the config reached the pod. This confirms delivery, not that the SDK acted on it; onboarding-summary checks the product data. Continue.

ERROR: A variable is missing or has a different value.

• Different value: the Deployment sets that variable itself, and SSI never overwrites an existing variable. Remove it from the Deployment or align it.
• Missing: check it is present in the DatadogAgent manifest under the target that matches this pod, and that the pod was restarted after the Cluster Agent finished rolling out.

Then check what the tracer reports at runtime. This output is informational; do not fail Step 3 on it.

Claude runs

pup apm service-library-config get \
  --service-name <SERVICE_NAME> \
  --env <ENV>

This view does not list every setting for every SDK. For example, DD_DATA_STREAMS_ENABLED does not show for Java, Python, Ruby, or Go services even when DSM is on. A setting missing here is not a failure when it is present in the pod env. For Data Streams, onboarding-summary confirms data with data_streams.latency (or enable-dsm Step 3 when it was run standalone).

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Done

Exit when ALL of the following are true:

• Step 1: target pods have SSI init containers injected (datadog-lib-<language>-init and datadog-init-apm-inject)
• Step 2: service appears in pup apm services list with isTraced: true
• Step 3 (only if ddTraceConfigs was set): each ddTraceConfigs variable appears in the env of pods in its target with the configured value. A setting missing from pup apm service-library-config get is not a failure

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.

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Security constraints

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