Kubernetes Workflow Actions

Reference for the six Kubernetes Workflow Actions available through the PD Automation Runner — inputs, outputs, and supported object types.

This page documents each Kubernetes Workflow Action available through the PD Automation Runner: its inputs, supported object types, outputs, and example use cases. For an overview and how to register and connect a runner, see PD Automation Runner. For deployment, see PD Automation Runner: Installation.

Each Kubernetes action requires a Connection Input that identifies which runner (and therefore which cluster) to target. If no runner appears in the list, verify the runner pod is running and shows Healthy in Incident Workflows Automation Connectors Self-hosted Runners.

Actions at a Glance

Action	What It Does	`kubectl` Equivalent
List Objects	Lists resources of a selected kind with optional namespace, label, and field filters	`kubectl get <type> [-n <namespace>] [-l <selector>]`
Describe Object	Returns full details for a named resource in JSON or YAML	`kubectl get <type> <name> -o json` or `yaml`
Object Logs	Retrieves log output from a pod, with optional tail and time-window filters	`kubectl logs <name> [-c <container>] [--tail=<n>]`
Create Pod	Creates a pod from a YAML definition	`kubectl create -f pod.yaml`
Delete Pod	Deletes a named pod	`kubectl delete pod <name>`
Run Pod Command	Executes a shell command inside a running pod and returns its output	`kubectl exec <pod> -- <shell> -c '<cmd>'`

List Objects

Lists resources of a selected kind in your cluster, with optional namespace, label, and field filters.

kubectl equivalent: kubectl get <type> [-n <namespace> | --all-namespaces] [-l <label-selector>] [--field-selector <field-selector>] [-o json|yaml]

Input	Required	Default	Description
Connection Input	Yes	—	Runner connection
Object Type	No	Pods	Resource kind to list (see supported types in the following list)
Namespace	No	default	Namespace to list from. Ignored when All Namespaces is true
All Namespaces	No	false	List across all namespaces
Label Selector	No	—	Filter by label (e.g. `app=my-service,env=prod`)
Field Selector	No	—	Filter by field (e.g. `metadata.name=my-pod`)
Output Format	No	Simple List	`Simple List`, `JSON`, or `YAML`

Supported object types: ConfigMaps, Cron Jobs, Custom Resource Definitions, DaemonSets, Deployments, Ingresses, Jobs, Namespaces, Nodes, PersistentVolumes, Persistent Volume Claims, Pods, Pod Disruption Budgets, ReplicaSets, Secrets, Services, StatefulSets, and Storage Classes.

Output: Output (list of matching resources), Result, Result Summary, and Error.

Example use case: During an incident, list all pods in the payments namespace to identify which are in a crash-loop state before deciding whether to restart them.

Describe Object

Retrieves full details for a named Kubernetes resource in JSON or YAML format. Returns structured output equivalent to kubectl get -o json|yaml (not the human-readable kubectl describe format).

kubectl equivalent: kubectl get <type> <name> [-n <namespace>] -o json|yaml

Input	Required	Default	Description
Connection Input	Yes	—	Runner connection
Object Type	No	Pods	Resource kind
Name	Yes	—	Name of the resource
Namespace	No	default	Namespace (not required for cluster-scoped resources: Namespaces, Nodes, PersistentVolumes, Storage Classes)
Output Format	No	JSON	`JSON` or `YAML`

Supported object types: ConfigMaps, Cron Jobs, DaemonSets, Deployments, Ingresses, Jobs, Namespaces, Nodes, PersistentVolumes, Persistent Volume Claims, Pods, ReplicaSets, Secrets, Services, StatefulSets, and Storage Classes.

Output: Description, Result, Result Summary, and Error.

Example use case: Fetch the full spec and status of a deployment to check its replicas, readyReplicas, and conditions fields as part of an automated health check workflow.

Object Logs

Retrieves log output from a named pod or container. Supports tailing and time-window filtering.

kubectl equivalent: kubectl logs <name> [-c <container>] [--tail=<n>] [--since=<N>s] [-n <namespace>]

Input	Required	Default	Description
Connection Input	Yes	—	Runner connection
Namespace	Yes	—	Namespace the pod is in
Object Name	Yes	—	Name of the pod
Container	No	—	Container name (required for multi-container pods)
Lines	No	50	Number of log lines to tail
Since	No	—	Return logs from the last N seconds (e.g. `300` for the last 5 minutes)

Output: Log Content, Result, Result Summary, and Error.

Example use case: Automatically capture the last 100 lines of logs from a failing pod and attach them to an incident as a note.

Create Pod

Creates a Kubernetes pod from a YAML definition.

kubectl equivalent: kubectl create -f pod.yaml [-n <namespace>]

Input	Required	Default	Description
Connection Input	Yes	—	Runner connection
Object YAML	Yes	—	Full YAML definition of the pod to create
Namespace	No	default	Namespace to create the pod in
Output Format	No	JSON	`JSON` or `YAML`

Output: Created Object, Result, Result Summary, and Error.

Example use case: Spin up a short-lived debug pod in a target namespace to run diagnostics, then delete it with the Delete Pod action once complete.

Delete Pod

Deletes a named pod from a namespace.

kubectl equivalent: kubectl delete pod <name> [-n <namespace>]

Input	Required	Default	Description
Connection Input	Yes	—	Runner connection
Object Name	Yes	—	Name of the pod to delete
Namespace	No	default	Namespace the pod resides in
Output Format	No	JSON	`JSON` or `YAML`

Output: Deleted Object, Result, Result Summary, and Error.

Example use case: Force-restart a stuck pod by deleting it (Kubernetes will reschedule it automatically if it is managed by a Deployment or ReplicaSet).

Run Pod Command

Executes a shell command inside a running pod and returns its output.

kubectl equivalent: kubectl exec <pod-name> [-c <container>] [-n <namespace>] -- <shell> -c '<command>'

Input	Required	Default	Description
Connection Input	Yes	—	Runner connection
Pod Name	Yes	—	Name of the pod
Namespace	No	default	Namespace the pod resides in
Command	Yes	—	Command to execute. Supports chaining with `&&`, `;`, and similar
Container	No	—	Target container (omit to use the pod's default container)
Shell	No	`/bin/sh`	Shell used to run the command

Output: Command Output, Result, Result Summary, and Error.

Example use case: Run df -h or free -m inside a pod to capture disk and memory usage at the time of an incident without needing direct cluster access.

Async Execution Model

All Kubernetes actions are asynchronous. When triggered, an action dispatches the job to the runner and waits for the runner to return a result. This means:

The Workflow step is paused while the runner executes — results are returned when execution completes.
The default timeout is 10 minutes. If the runner is unreachable, the action times out and returns a Failed result.
Runner logs (kubectl logs -n pd-automation-runner deploy/pd-automation-runner) show the job receipt and execution result.