> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vexa.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Kubernetes (Helm)

> Deploy Vexa on Kubernetes or OpenShift with the Helm chart — a Pod per bot and per agent, scalable to thousands of users.

The Helm chart at [`deploy/helm/charts/vexa`](https://github.com/Vexa-ai/vexa/tree/main/deploy/helm)
deploys the same control plane as the Compose stack, with the runtime pointed at the cluster:
`RUNTIME_BACKEND=k8s` makes **every bot and every agent dispatch its own bare Pod**
(`restart: Never`), so capacity is your cluster's scheduler — not a bigger box.

## What the chart deploys

| Component                                               | Form                                               |
| ------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| gateway · admin-api · meeting-api · agent-api · runtime | Deployments (RollingUpdate, `maxUnavailable: 0`)   |
| terminal (web workbench)                                | Deployment + ingress                               |
| postgres                                                | StatefulSet (or point values at your managed DB)   |
| redis · minio                                           | Deployments (+ minio init Job)                     |
| DB migrations                                           | Job                                                |
| pgbouncer                                               | optional connection pooling                        |
| RBAC for the k8s spawn backend                          | Role/RoleBinding scoped to Pod create/watch/delete |

Hardened defaults throughout: containers run non-root with all capabilities dropped,
PodDisruptionBudgets on the control plane, and rolling updates that never take the last
replica down.

## Install

```bash theme={null}
git clone https://github.com/Vexa-ai/vexa.git && cd vexa
helm install vexa deploy/helm/charts/vexa -f deploy/helm/charts/vexa/values.yaml
```

`values-staging.yaml` and `values-test.yaml` show environment overlays. Chart tests
(`helm lint` + template tests) live under `deploy/helm/tests/`.

## The runtime on Kubernetes

The runtime kernel owns one `runtime.v1` lifecycle (`starting → running → stopping → stopped →
destroyed`) and delegates only the substrate question — *how do I start, observe, and stop a
workload?* — to the backend. On `k8s`, a workload is a bare Pod; the same dispatch, contracts,
and worker run identically to the Docker backend. See [Execution](/architecture/execution).

## Honest status

The k8s backend **lifecycle and the workspace mount are implemented** (the workspace store
binds into each worker Pod as a PVC, scoped per-mount). The Compose stack is the path with the
most production mileage today; the chart is the right starting point for a cluster
evaluation — track the [status page](/roadmap/status).

## Air-gapped clusters

Everything the chart deploys pulls from images you build and host in your own registry; pair it
with the [self-hosted transcription unit](/deployment#transcription-the-separate-gpu-unit) and
your own LLM endpoint ([Configuration](/configuration)) for a zero-egress posture. See
[Security & compliance](/security-compliance).