Install

Make sure your cluster meets the prerequisites first.

You install Architect from the console. Sign into console.architect.io and click + Add Cluster; it walks you through the three steps below with your machine token, cluster name, and distribution already filled in.

1. Label the always-on nodes

Architect's control plane needs somewhere stable to run. Label at least one always-on node (for example an on-demand instance) with critical-node:

kubectl label nodes <node> architect.loopholelabs.io/critical-node=true

2. Label the workload nodes

Label at least two of the nodes that run your own workloads with node. Ephemeral nodes (for example spot instances) are a good fit, since Architect migrates these workloads to a new node and scales them to zero when idle:

kubectl label nodes <node> architect.loopholelabs.io/node=true

See Configuration: Node labels for what each label means.

3. Install the chart

Run the command the console generated. The token, cluster name, and distribution are filled in for you:

helm install architect oci://ghcr.io/loopholelabs/architect-chart \
  --namespace architect --create-namespace \
  --set kubernetesDistro=<distro> \
  --set apiUrl=https://api.architect.io \
  --set machineToken=<your-machine-token> \
  --set clusterName=<cluster-name>

Installing via GitOps? Reference the token from a Secret with secretRef instead of passing it inline. See Configuration: Helm values.

Confirm the install

A quick smoke check. For a full diagnostic walkthrough, see Verify the install.

kubectl get pods -n architect

You should see architect-admission-controller, architect-control-plane, and an architectd pod on each labeled node. Then deploy an example application.

For every chart value and tuning option, see Configuration: Helm values.