> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://datum.net/docs/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](/docs/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.
</Note>

<Warning>
  The skill teaches the `datumctl alb` commands, which come from a plugin that is not installed by default. Install it before an agent follows this skill, or every command it runs will fail:

  ```bash theme={null}
  datumctl plugin install alb
  datumctl alb version
  ```
</Warning>

## 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.

It does not cover metrics. There is no command for request rates, latency percentiles or error rates over time, so the skill sends people to the Metrics tab for that load balancer in the cloud portal instead of guessing from access logs.

## How it relates to other Datum surfaces

* **Product docs:** [Application Load Balancer](/docs/alb/overview) — the human-facing reference for what an ALB is made of
* **Datum MCP:** [Datum MCP](/docs/datum-mcp) — for agents that need to read and write Datum resources during a session
* **Datum's own assistant** — a separate surface with read-only Application Load Balancer tools of its own, entitled through the platform catalog. It answers questions about a load balancer in the portal without anything being installed; this skill is for driving `datumctl` yourself
* **`datumctl`:** [datumctl overview](/docs/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>


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