Kubernetes YAMLs Demystified: What’s the Difference?

In Kubernetes, a manifest is a YAML (or JSON) file that declares a resource you want to create or manage in the cluster. There are dozens of resource types, but they all fall into a few broad categories.

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✅ Common Categories of Kubernetes Manifests

1. Workload Resources (define what runs)

Kind	Purpose
Pod	The smallest deployable unit
Deployment	Declarative updates for Pods
ReplicaSet	Maintains a stable set of Pods
StatefulSet	Pods with stable identity/storage
DaemonSet	One Pod per node
Job	One-off task
CronJob	Scheduled Jobs

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2. Service & Networking (define how things connect)

Kind	Purpose
Service	Stable access to Pods
Ingress	HTTP routing to Services
IngressClass	Ingress controller config
EndpointSlice	Tracks Service endpoints
NetworkPolicy	Controls traffic rules

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3. Configuration & Secrets (define app config)

Kind	Purpose
ConfigMap	Key-value config
Secret	Encrypted key-value config
ServiceAccount	Identity for Pods
ResourceQuota	Limit resource usage per namespace
LimitRange	Default/limit CPU/mem per Pod

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4. Storage Resources

Kind	Purpose
PersistentVolume (PV)	Cluster-managed storage unit
PersistentVolumeClaim (PVC)	Request for a PV
StorageClass	Defines dynamic volume provisioning
VolumeAttachment	CSI plugin volume tracking

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5. Cluster-Level Resources

Kind	Purpose
Namespace	Isolate resources into groups
Node	Represents a worker machine
Role / ClusterRole	Permissions (RBAC)
RoleBinding / ClusterRoleBinding	RBAC assignment
CustomResourceDefinition (CRD)	Add new resource types

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6. Custom Resources (via CRDs)

• These are user-defined kinds created via CustomResourceDefinition

• Examples:

  • KafkaTopic (via Strimzi)
  • CertManager resources
  • ArgoCD CRDs
  • PrometheusRule, etc.

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🧾 Summary Table of Core Kubernetes Manifest Kinds

Category	Example Kinds
Workloads	Deployment, Pod, Job, CronJob
Networking	Service, Ingress, NetworkPolicy
Configuration	ConfigMap, Secret, ServiceAccount
Storage	PV, PVC, StorageClass
Cluster Management	Node, Namespace, Role, CRD
Custom Resources	Anything from a CRD