Kubernetes Operator

Deploy the Solen operator to your cluster. Register workloads with a SolenApp CRD, monitor pods, and trigger infrastructure heals from inside Kubernetes.

What it does

The in-cluster operator:

Watches SolenApp custom resources (add, update, delete)
Registers each app with Solen via POST /api/external-apps
Patches status with externalAppId, phase, and sync time
Creates a solen-agent-{name} Secret for sidecar credentials
Triggers heals through Solen when health checks fail (restart, rollback image, scale — no source edits)

Install via Helm

Helm

helm install solen gautamtalksdev/k8s-operator:v3

Create the API key secret before the operator starts (see deploy/operator-deployment.yaml in the repo).

Install via kubectl

Apply the CRD, RBAC, credentials Secret, and operator Deployment:

kubectl

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/GautamTalksDev/Solen/main/packages/solen-k8s-operator/deploy/operator-deployment.yaml

For a full install (CRD + RBAC separately), see the operator README on GitHub.

SolenApp CRD example

Install the CRD once per cluster, then apply a SolenApp per workload:

solenapp.yaml

apiVersion: solen.ai/v1alpha1
kind: SolenApp
metadata:
  name: payments-api
  namespace: production
spec:
  healthCheckUrl: http://payments-api.production.svc.cluster.local:8080/health
  healMode: supervised
  rollbackImages:
    - ghcr.io/acme/payments-api:v2.4.1
    - ghcr.io/acme/payments-api:v2.4.0
  platform: kubernetes

Sidecar injection example

After the operator registers your SolenApp, add the Solen agent container and mount the generated Secret (V3: manual sidecar; automatic mutating webhook planned for a future release):

Deployment excerpt

        - name: solen-agent
          image: gautamtalksdev/agent:v3
          env:
            - name: SOLEN_AGENT_TOKEN
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: solen-agent-payments-api
                  key: SOLEN_AGENT_TOKEN
            - name: SOLEN_EXTERNAL_APP_ID
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: solen-agent-payments-api
                  key: SOLEN_EXTERNAL_APP_ID
            - name: SOLEN_HEALTH_CHECK_URL
              valueFrom:
                secretKeyRef:
                  name: solen-agent-payments-api
                  key: SOLEN_HEALTH_CHECK_URL
            - name: SOLEN_API_URL
              value: "https://api.solenai.ca"

Full documentation

Helm values, RBAC, environment variables, and troubleshooting live in the GitHub repo:

github.com/GautamTalksDev/Solen — packages/solen-k8s-operator →

← Integrations overview · All integration docs

What it does

The in-cluster operator:

Watches SolenApp custom resources (add, update, delete)

Registers each app with Solen via POST /api/external-apps

Patches status with externalAppId, phase, and sync time

Creates a solen-agent-{name} Secret for sidecar credentials

Triggers heals through Solen when health checks fail (restart, rollback image, scale — no source edits)