Update KAL to support new guidance on required and optional fields

.golangci.yaml

@@ -25,10 +25,28 @@ linters:
                 preference: WhenRequired
                 policy: SuggestFix
               omitEmpty:
-                # Ignore missing omitempty so that we can omit the omitempty for discoverability.
-                # Discoverability is for configuration APIs, generally singletons.
-                # Refer to the API conventions for when to use discoverability (not our default stance).
-                policy: Ignore 
+                # This will force omitempty on optional fields.
+                # This is in line with upstream guidance where optional fields should be omitted
+                # from the serialized output unless they are non-zero.
+                policy: SuggestFix
+              omitzero:
+                # This will force omitzero on optional struct fields.
+                # This means they can be omitted correctly and prevents the need for pointers to structs.
+                policy: SuggestFix
+            requiredFields:
+              pointers:
+                # This will force pointers when the field is required, but only when the zero
+                # value is a valid user choice, and has a semantic difference to being omitted (e.g. replicas allows 0).
+                policy: SuggestFix
+              omitempty:
+                # This will force omitempty on required fields.
+                # We do this so that the behaviour of not setting a value for the field is the same between
+                # both structured and unstructured clients.
+                policy: SuggestFix
+              omitzero:
+                # This will force omitzero on required struct fields.
+                # This means they can be omitted correctly and prevents the need for pointers to structs.
+                policy: SuggestFix
             uniqueMarkers:
               customMarkers:
               - identifier: "openshift:validation:FeatureGateAwareEnum"

tools/go.mod

@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ require (
 	k8s.io/kube-openapi v0.0.0-20250318190949-c8a335a9a2ff
 	k8s.io/utils v0.0.0-20250604170112-4c0f3b243397
 	sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools v0.15.0
-	sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter v0.0.0-20250729132427-47bfeef6cd38
+	sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter v0.0.0-20250808120943-48643eb2563d
 	sigs.k8s.io/yaml v1.4.0
 )
 

tools/go.sum

@@ -994,6 +994,8 @@ sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter v0.0.0-20250723124831-1b29e82a0f55 h1:kD9x5uu1/A7wvh
 sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter v0.0.0-20250723124831-1b29e82a0f55/go.mod h1:Jxl3NU9lRf9WJ8dgwgF4U6tLF229jR/KEvtxSwRAKnE=
 sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter v0.0.0-20250729132427-47bfeef6cd38 h1:5WuFSvNbquqwM82aBQ36AfsFGsf2Jc0OJM4SCC2rw4w=
 sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter v0.0.0-20250729132427-47bfeef6cd38/go.mod h1:Jxl3NU9lRf9WJ8dgwgF4U6tLF229jR/KEvtxSwRAKnE=
+sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter v0.0.0-20250808120943-48643eb2563d h1:BcgCRoMLmIxRTLokQ1K1LAle+21fKPqgA6OvzN04xEg=
+sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter v0.0.0-20250808120943-48643eb2563d/go.mod h1:Jxl3NU9lRf9WJ8dgwgF4U6tLF229jR/KEvtxSwRAKnE=
 sigs.k8s.io/randfill v0.0.0-20250304075658-069ef1bbf016/go.mod h1:XeLlZ/jmk4i1HRopwe7/aU3H5n1zNUcX6TM94b3QxOY=
 sigs.k8s.io/randfill v1.0.0 h1:JfjMILfT8A6RbawdsK2JXGBR5AQVfd+9TbzrlneTyrU=
 sigs.k8s.io/randfill v1.0.0/go.mod h1:XeLlZ/jmk4i1HRopwe7/aU3H5n1zNUcX6TM94b3QxOY=

tools/vendor/modules.txt

@@ -2378,7 +2378,7 @@ sigs.k8s.io/controller-tools/pkg/webhook
 ## explicit; go 1.21
 sigs.k8s.io/json
 sigs.k8s.io/json/internal/golang/encoding/json
-# sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter v0.0.0-20250729132427-47bfeef6cd38
+# sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter v0.0.0-20250808120943-48643eb2563d
 ## explicit; go 1.24.0
 sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter/pkg/analysis/commentstart
 sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter/pkg/analysis/conditions
@@ -2406,6 +2406,7 @@ sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter/pkg/analysis/statusoptional
 sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter/pkg/analysis/statussubresource
 sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter/pkg/analysis/uniquemarkers
 sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter/pkg/analysis/utils
+sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter/pkg/analysis/utils/serialization
 sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter/pkg/config
 sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter/pkg/markers
 sigs.k8s.io/kube-api-linter/pkg/plugin