Dev mode (hot-reload)

Build, deploy and watch for changes; auto-rebuild on save

skaffold dev --port-forward

More skaffold commands

One-shot build and deploy

skaffold run --tail

Build images, push to registry and deploy to cluster
Build only (no deploy)

skaffold build --file-output=artifacts.json

Build images and export artifact metadata to file
Deploy pre-built artifacts

skaffold deploy --build-artifacts=artifacts.json

Deploy using previously built image digests from CI
Render manifests only

skaffold render --output=manifests.yaml

Produce final Kubernetes YAML without applying it
Use a specific profile

skaffold dev -p staging

Activate a named profile from skaffold.yaml