- watches k8s resource for existing pods, so that pods that have already been started can be moved in or out of the ambient mesh.
- sends UDS events to ztunnel via a socket whenever a pod is enabled for ambient mesh (whether from CNI plugin or node watcher), instructing ztunnel to create the "tube" socket.

## Introduction

The operator uses the [IstioOperator API](https://github.com/istio/api/blob/master/operator/v1alpha1/operator.proto), which has
three main components:

- [MeshConfig](https://github.com/istio/api/blob/master/mesh/v1alpha1/config.proto) for runtime config consumed directly by Istio
control plane components.