Best Practices when using decK

• Always ensure that you have one decK process running at any time. Multiple processes step on each other and can corrupt Kong’s configuration.
• Do not mix up decK’s declarative configuration with cURL or any other script. Either manage the configuration with decK or manage it with your homegrown script. Mixing the two on the same dataset is cumbersome and error-prone.
• If you have a very large installation, you can split out your configuration into smaller subsets. You can find more info for it in the guide to practicing distributed configuration.
• Always use a pinned version of decK and Kong Gateway. Use a specific version of decK in production to achieve declarative configuration. If you upgrade to a new version of decK or Kong Gateway, please safely test the changes in a staging environment first.
• decK does not manage encryption of sensitive information. The state file stores the private keys of your certificates and credentials of consumers in plaintext. Be careful in how and where you store this file to avoid any security breaches. Always store the sensitive information in an encrypted form and provide a plaintext version of it on a need-only basis.
• If you have many consumers in your database, do not export or manage them using decK. Declarative configuration is only meant for entity configuration. It is not meant for end-user data, which can easily grow into hundreds of thousands or millions of records.
• Always run a diff command before running a sync to ensure that the change is correct.
• Adopt a CI-driven configuration practice.
• Always secure Kong’s Admin API with a reliable authentication method.
• Do not write the state file by hand to avoid errors. Use Kong’s Admin API to configure Kong Gateway for the first time, then export the configuration to a declarative configuration file. Any subsequent changes should be made by manually editing the file and pushing the change via CI. If you’re making a larger change, make the change in Kong Gateway first, then export the new file. Then you can diff the two state files to review the changes being made.
• Configure a cronjob to run diff periodically to ensure that Kong Gateway’s database is in sync with the state file checking into your Git repositories. Trigger an alert if decK detects a drift in the configuration.