Investigate impact and handle missing `field.cattle.io/publicEndpoints` annotation

[richard-cox]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

• See [RFE] Ability to disable the rancher field.cattle.io/publicEndpoints annotation because the annotation is too large rancher#42058
• there will be a feature flag to disable the annotation publicEndpoints

Describe the solution you'd like

• Confirm that a missing annotation won't break pages, in theory we already handle this but would be good to rubber stamp
• Confirm the functionality that uses the annotation
• Description in docs and ui must make it clear what kind of functionality would be lost
• Ensure the new feature flag displays in feature flag list and has a reasonable description

Additional context
SURE-7886

[github-actions]

🎯 Agentic Issue Triage

This is an investigation/enhancement task to ensure the dashboard handles a missing field.cattle.io/publicEndpoints annotation gracefully, in preparation for the new Rancher feature flag (see rancher/rancher#42058) that can disable this annotation.

📍 Affected Code

The CATTLE_PUBLIC_ENDPOINTS = 'field.cattle.io/publicEndpoints' annotation is referenced in several places:

File	Usage
shell/models/workload.js	Getter publicEndpoints — reads annotation directly
shell/detail/service.vue	hasPublic guard + JSON parse of annotation value
shell/components/formatter/ServiceTargets.vue	Guards with has(annotations, CATTLE_PUBLIC_ENDPOINTS) before access
shell/components/formatter/WorkloadDetailEndpoints.vue	Comment says "value may be JSON from annotation"
shell/components/formatter/Endpoints.vue	Same pattern
shell/config/table-headers.js	Column definition using optional chaining ?. — safe
shell/plugins/steve/steve-pagination-utils.ts	Used in sort/filter field references
shell/config/product/explorer.js	Used in sort/search columns

🔍 Analysis

What currently looks safe:

• shell/detail/service.vue — uses has(annotations, CATTLE_PUBLIC_ENDPOINTS) guard before parsing
• shell/components/formatter/ServiceTargets.vue — same guard pattern
• shell/config/table-headers.js — uses optional chaining row.metadata?.annotations?.[CATTLE_PUBLIC_ENDPOINTS]
• shell/models/workload.js — uses optional chaining this?.metadata?.annotations?.[CATTLE_PUBLIC_ENDPOINTS]

Areas that need verification:

• WorkloadDetailEndpoints.vue and Endpoints.vue — both accept the annotation value as a prop; need to confirm callers handle undefined gracefully
• steve-pagination-utils.ts sort/filter fields — these pass field paths to the API; a missing annotation should just return empty results, but worth confirming no client-side crash

Feature flag UI:

• The new feature flag from Rancher backend needs to appear in the Feature Flags list in the dashboard with a clear description explaining that disabling this annotation will remove endpoint visibility from workload/service pages.

✅ Suggested Sub-tasks

• Audit all usages of CATTLE_PUBLIC_ENDPOINTS and confirm each handles a null/undefined annotation value without throwing
• Add/update unit tests for workload.js model getter, service.vue, and formatter components to cover the case where the annotation is absent
• Verify the Workloads list page and Service detail page render correctly (no crash, graceful empty state) when the annotation is missing
• Confirm the new feature flag from Rancher backend appears in the dashboard Feature Flags list (/dashboard/c/local/settings/feature-flags) with an appropriate description
• Update any UI tooltips or documentation strings that describe the Endpoints column/section to mention that this info requires the publicEndpoints annotation to be enabled
• Coordinate with docs team to update user-facing docs noting the impact of disabling the feature flag (endpoint visibility lost in workload/service views)

🛠️ Debugging / Reproduction Strategy

1. Spin up a Rancher instance and manually remove the field.cattle.io/publicEndpoints annotation from a workload or service:

   kubectl annotate deployment <name> -n <namespace> field.cattle.io/publicEndpoints-

2. Navigate to the Workloads list — confirm the Endpoints column shows an empty/graceful state (no JS errors in console)
3. Open the Service detail page — confirm no crash and a sensible empty state
4. Once the feature flag is available in Rancher, enable it and verify all of the above still holds at the cluster level

🔗 Useful References

• rancher/rancher#42058 — upstream feature flag tracking issue
• shell/config/labels-annotations.js — central definition of CATTLE_PUBLIC_ENDPOINTS
• shell/models/workload.js — workload model getter
• shell/detail/service.vue — service detail page logic
• shell/components/formatter/ServiceTargets.vue — formatter component (has guard)

Generated by Agentic Triage for issue #17756 · ● 246.8K · ◷

[github-actions]

🤖 Issue grooming questions

The problem context (upstream issue rancher/rancher#42058, feature flag to disable the publicEndpoints annotation) is referenced, which is helpful. Two items are needed before this can be triaged for development.

1. Missing: Concrete Acceptance Criteria

The current bullet points describe investigation tasks rather than verifiable outcomes. Please rewrite as a testable checklist, for example:

• Pages that consume field.cattle.io/publicEndpoints degrade gracefully — no errors or broken UI — when the annotation is absent.
• A feature flag for disabling publicEndpoints appears in the Rancher feature flag list with a clear, user-readable description of which functionality is affected when the flag is enabled.
• Documentation and/or UI copy clearly communicates what functionality is unavailable when the annotation is disabled.

2. Missing: Technical Scope

To allow an engineer to size this work:

• Which specific pages or components in the dashboard consume field.cattle.io/publicEndpoints? Even a rough list will help.
• Is the feature flag already implemented on the backend, or does the dashboard also need to introduce a flag definition?

This comment was generated automatically to help gather the information needed to groom this issue.

Generated by Daily Issue Grooming · ● 870.5K · ◷