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  5. Pulumi Kubernetes Operator
  6. Stack operations

Pulumi Kubernetes Operator: Stack operations

    The Stack resource provides several options for controlling how the operator runs Pulumi deployment operations. Detailed documentation on the Stack API is available in the operator repository.

    Drift detection

    Drift detection means to detect unwanted changes to your provisioned infrastructure. The operator supports drift detection and remediation by periodically running pulumi up. This is referred to as re-synchronization.

    Use the spec.continueResyncOnCommitMatch field to enable periodic resyncs. Use the spec.resyncFrequencySeconds field to set the resync frequency.

    State refresh

    Use the spec.refresh field to refresh the state of the stack’s resources before each update.

    It is recommended that spec.refresh be enabled.

    Stack cleanup

    Use the spec.destroyOnFinalize field to automatically destroy the Pulumi stack (i.e. pulumi destroy -f) when the Stack object is deleted. Enable this option to link the lifecycle of the Pulumi stack, and the resources it contains, to its Stack object.

    Stack object deletion is slower when this option is enabled, because a Pulumi deployment operation must be run during object finalization.

    Stack prerequisites

    It is possible to declare that a particular Stack be dependent on another Stack. The dependent stack waits for the other stack to be successfully deployed. Use the succeededWithinDuration field to set a duration within which the prerequisite must have reached success; otherwise the dependency is automatically re-synced.

    External triggers

    It is possible to trigger a stack update for a stack at any time by applying the pulumi.com/reconciliation-request annotation:

    kubectl annotate stack $STACK_NAME "pulumi.com/reconciliation-request=$(date)" --overwrite

    The value of the annotation is arbitrary, and we recommend using a timestamp.

    Preview mode

    Preview mode enables you to run Pulumi stacks in dry-run fashion, allowing you to visualize what infrastructure changes would occur without actually applying them. When spec.preview is set to true, the operator runs pulumi preview instead of pulumi up.

    This is useful for:

    • Validating infrastructure changes before deployment
    • Comparing different configurations using multiple Stack resources pointing to the same Pulumi stack
    • Creating tick-tock rollout patterns where you toggle preview mode on and off

    Here’s an example Stack with preview mode enabled:

    apiVersion: pulumi.com/v1
kind: Stack
metadata:
  name: my-infrastructure-preview
spec:
  serviceAccountName: pulumi
  stack: my-org/my-project/prod
  projectRepo: https://github.com/example/infra
  branch: feature-branch
  preview: true  # Only runs pulumi preview
  envRefs:
    PULUMI_ACCESS_TOKEN:
      type: Secret
      secret:
        name: pulumi-api-secret
        key: accessToken

    The Stack’s Ready condition indicates preview success, and status includes preview links, standard output, and program outputs—all without making actual infrastructure changes.