Quick start

This guide gets you from zero to a running service. Estimated time: 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

• Linux or macOS (amd64 or arm64).
• Docker, if you want to run container services. The process runner works without it.
• runed and rune installed. See Installation — or run the one-liner below.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/runestack/rune/master/scripts/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --version v0.1.0

1. Start the server

If you installed via the server script, runed is already running as a systemd unit:

sudo systemctl start runed
sudo systemctl status runed

For local hacking you can run it directly:

runed --data-dir ~/.rune/data --grpc-addr :7863 --http-addr :7861

runed listens on:

• gRPC — :7863 (primary API for the CLI)
• REST — :7861 (gateway for HTTP clients)

2. Bootstrap a root token

The first time you talk to runed, you create the root admin token. This call is gated to localhost on the server side, so run it on the same machine:

rune admin bootstrap --out-file ~/.rune/token

Output:

Bootstrap successful. Token written to ~/.rune/token (mode 0600).

The token is a long random string of the form <uuid>.<uuid>. Keep it safe — it has full root privileges.

3. Configure the CLI

Point the CLI at your server and tell it which token to use:

rune login local \
  --server localhost:7863 \
  --token-file ~/.rune/token \
  --namespace default

Verify:

rune whoami

You should see:

Current Context: local
Server: localhost:7863
Default Namespace: default
Status: Authenticated
Subject ID: <uuid>
Name: root
Policies: [root]

4. Deploy your first service

Create a file echo.yaml:

service:
  name: echo
  namespace: default
  image: busybox
  scale: 1
  command: "/bin/sh"
  args:
    - "-c"
    - "while true; do echo \"Hello from Rune! $(date)\"; sleep 5; done"

Apply it:

rune cast echo.yaml

5. Watch it run

rune get services
rune logs echo --tail=20 --follow

You should see the echo loop streaming.

Hello from Rune! Sat Apr 25 18:00:00 UTC 2026
Hello from Rune! Sat Apr 25 18:00:05 UTC 2026
...

6. Scale and clean up

Scale to 3 instances, then tear it down:

rune scale echo 3
rune get instances
rune delete echo

Where next

• Deploy your first service — same idea, with health checks, env vars, and ports.
• CLI reference — every command and flag.
• Service spec — the full YAML schema.
• Bootstrap & first user — create a non-root user with scoped permissions.