While Kubernetes provides exceptional flexibility, it can also easily deploy misconfigurations to production without robust policy enforcement. With PodSecurityPolicy deprecated, many teams have turned to Kyverno and OPA Gatekeeper to maintain workload compliance and cluster security. This talk moves beyond theoretical checklists to explore how these tools perform in real-world scenarios. We’ll examine their strengths and weaknesses, and discuss how to implement policies for security without hindering developer progress - and explain why “just write a Rego rule” isn’t always the answer. If you've ever thought about getting these set up in production without becoming the bottleneck, this talk is for you! Bring your YAML - and leave with actionable insights to secure your clusters confidently.