> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://datum-4926dda5-docs-alb-skill-product-model.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Application Load Balancer skill

> Teach agents to create and manage Datum Application Load Balancers with datumctl — hostnames, routes and origins, traffic protection, and the policies the CLI does not cover.

The Application Load Balancer skill teaches agents to work with an [Application Load Balancer](/alb/overview) as a product rather than as the objects it is stored in: create one, get the hostname to point DNS at, attach custom hostnames, add routes and the origins behind them, and configure traffic protection and authentication — all through `datumctl alb`.

It also covers the policies the CLI does not wrap, for when you need WAF rule exclusions, rate limiting, circuit breaking or OIDC: `TrafficProtectionPolicy`, `SecurityPolicy` and `BackendTrafficPolicy`, attached via `targetRefs`.

## Install

<CodeGroup>
  ```bash Claude Code theme={null}
  /plugin marketplace add datum-cloud/skills
  /plugin install datum-cloud@datum-cloud
  ```

  ```bash npx skills theme={null}
  npx skills add https://github.com/datum-cloud/skills
  ```

  ```bash Cursor theme={null}
  # Settings → Rules → Add Rule → Remote Rule (GitHub)
  # Repository: datum-cloud/skills
  ```
</CodeGroup>

<Note>
  Once installed, the skill activates automatically when you ask an agent to work with Application Load Balancer on Datum. No further configuration needed.
</Note>

## Capabilities

* Create a load balancer and get the generated hostname to point DNS at
* Attach custom hostnames and follow their verification, DNS and certificate progress
* Add routes and the origins behind them, by URL or by network service
* Configure traffic protection (WAF), request headers and basic authentication
* Read access logs for one load balancer
* Attach the advanced policies the CLI does not cover: WAF rule exclusions, rate limiting, circuit breaking, OIDC
* Preview every change before applying it

It also teaches the three ways this API's status misleads a naive reader — conditions that report on several hostnames without naming one, a condition that is true when something is wrong, and two reasons set true to mean "does not apply" — so an agent does not report a problem that is not there, or miss one that is.

## How it relates to other Datum surfaces

* **Product docs:** [Application Load Balancer](/alb/overview) — the human-facing reference for what an ALB is made of
* **Datum MCP:** [Datum MCP](/datum-mcp) — for agents that need to read and write Datum resources during a session
* **`datumctl`:** [datumctl overview](/datumctl/overview) — the `datumctl alb` commands the skill teaches agents to use, plus `apply`, `diff` and `delete` for the advanced policies

## View the full skill

The canonical SKILL.md lives in the [datum-cloud/skills](https://github.com/datum-cloud/skills) repo:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="On GitHub" icon="github" href="https://github.com/datum-cloud/skills/blob/main/skills/alb/SKILL.md">
    Browse the skill source, including frontmatter and full instructions.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Raw SKILL.md" icon="file-code" href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/datum-cloud/skills/main/skills/alb/SKILL.md">
    Direct URL for agents that fetch skills by URL.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>