How to build and run komputer.ai from source on a local Kubernetes cluster.

Prerequisites

Go 1.22+
Docker
A local Kubernetes cluster (Docker Desktop, kind, or minikube)
An Anthropic API key

Setup

1. Install CRDs

cd komputer-operator
make install

2. Apply local infrastructure

This creates Redis (as a Deployment), a service pointing to your locally-running API, and a Redis secret:

kubectl apply -f komputer-operator/config/samples/local-setup.yaml

3. Create the Anthropic API key secret

kubectl create secret generic anthropic-api-key \
  --from-literal=api-key=sk-ant-...

4. Apply platform config and default agent template

kubectl apply -f komputer-operator/config/samples/komputer_v1alpha1_komputerconfig.yaml
kubectl apply -f komputer-operator/config/samples/komputer_v1alpha1_komputeragentclustertemplate.yaml

5. Build the agent image

docker build -t komputer-agent:latest komputer-agent/

If you're using kind, load the image into the cluster:

kind load docker-image komputer-agent:latest --name <cluster-name>

6. Port-forward Redis

In a dedicated terminal:

kubectl port-forward svc/redis 6379:6379

7. Run the API

In a second terminal:

cd komputer-api
LOCAL=true REDIS_ADDRESS=localhost:6379 go run .

⚠️ Important: LOCAL=true is required for local development. It disables direct HTTP calls to agent pods (which fail due to pod networking from outside the cluster) and uses kubectl exec as a fallback instead. Without it, features like agent history, file downloads, and session reads will time out.

The API starts on http://localhost:8080. The Swagger UI is available at http://localhost:8080/swagger/index.html.

8. Run the operator

In a third terminal:

cd komputer-operator
make run

9. Run the UI (optional)

In a fourth terminal:

cd komputer-ui
npm install
npm run dev

Opens at http://localhost:3000. Connects to the API on http://localhost:8080 by default.

10. Build and use the CLI

In a fifth terminal:

cd komputer-cli
go build -o komputer .

./komputer login http://localhost:8080
./komputer run my-agent "Hello world"

What local-setup.yaml creates

Resource	Purpose
`Deployment/redis`	In-cluster Redis for event streaming
`Service/redis`	Exposes Redis at `redis:6379` inside the cluster
`Service/komputer-api`	Points to your locally-running API (via Endpoints)
`Endpoints/komputer-api`	Routes `komputer-api:8080` to Docker Desktop host IP (`192.168.65.254`)
`Secret/redis-secret`	Empty Redis password for local use

The komputer-api Service + Endpoints trick allows agent pods running inside the cluster to reach your locally-running API on http://komputer-api:8080, which is what KomputerConfig.spec.apiURL points to.

Rebuilding after changes

# After changing agent code
docker build -t komputer-agent:latest komputer-agent/
# kind: kind load docker-image komputer-agent:latest --name <cluster-name>
# Existing agents need to be deleted and recreated to pick up the new image

# After changing CRD types
cd komputer-operator
make generate    # regenerate deepcopy code
make manifests   # regenerate CRD manifests
make install     # apply updated CRDs to cluster

# API and operator pick up changes on restart (Ctrl+C and re-run)

Local Development