Getting Started
The four ways to run Octo and where to begin.
Four ways to use Octo, all executing the same flow YAML.
The four ways to run Octo
The octo CLI is a single Go binary. Point it at a config file and it starts
your connectors and flows; add --watch for hot reload, or use octo invoke to
call one flow with JSON in and JSON out. Best for local development, testing,
and CI.
The standalone visual editor bundles the editor and the octo runtime, and
ships two ways: a native macOS app that opens a working folder, or a Docker
image you mount a directory into. Either way you design flows on a canvas, run
them with one click, and the flows stay plain YAML on disk. Same editor, same
runtime — pick whichever you would rather install.
The full platform on Kubernetes is a control plane (orchestrator plus Postgres) and a multi-user editor. It stores integration definitions and deploys each as its own Kubernetes workload, with environment binding, secrets, scaling, versioned deployments, and centralized logs. This is how a team runs Octo in production.
Your own platform is the fourth way, and it is the same runtime with its
capabilities pointed somewhere else. The object store, secrets, queues, topics,
leases and leader election sit behind one HTTP contract, so a build of the
runtime tagged api delegates all of them to a server you implement against
whatever you already run: Firestore and Pub/Sub behind a Cloud Run service, a
sidecar on loopback, a central service in your own cluster. Reach for it when
you want Octo on serverless infrastructure, or when the data has to stay in
systems you control. See The platform API.
| CLI | Standalone editor | Platform | Your own platform | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | Build one binary | Install the app, or one docker run | Kubernetes cluster | The octo-api image plus a server you implement |
| Best for | Development, CI | Visual authoring, trying Octo | Team operations, production | Serverless, or infrastructure you own |
| Users | You | You | Multi-user | You |
| Flows live in | Files on disk | Files on disk | Postgres, deployed to pods | Files baked into your image |
Where to begin
New to Octo? Install the CLI and run your first flow. If you would rather not install anything, start with the editor quickstart.
Installation
Install the desktop app, download the octo CLI, run it from Docker, or build it from source.
Your First Flow
Run a hello-world flow and invoke a flow directly from the CLI.
Unit-Testing a Flow
Put that flow under test with dolphin, and make testing part of the edit loop.
Editor Quickstart
Design and run flows in the browser with zero setup.
HTTP Quickstart
Build your first real integration: an HTTP endpoint.
Deploy the Platform
Stand up the full multi-user platform on Kubernetes.
The Platform API
Run Octo on your own platform by implementing one HTTP contract.