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Getting started

Just looking? The live demo needs no install. Or one command runs a throwaway server with three weeks of example data and prints a link that signs you in; nothing is kept when you stop it:

Terminal window
docker run --rm -p 8080:8080 ghcr.io/pipozzz/goliash try

The rest of this page starts a server to keep with Docker Compose, shows example data, and connects your first orchestrator. It takes about five minutes.

Terminal window
curl -fsSLO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pipozzz/goliash/main/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d
docker compose logs goliash | grep link= # open it to create your account

The server listens on http://localhost:8080 and keeps its SQLite database in a Docker volume.

While nobody has an account, the server writes a one-time setup link to its log (the last command above shows it). Open it, enter your e-mail and a password: you are the owner of the organization and signed in. The link works once, for 24 hours; restarting the server writes a new one. Later, invite the others from Settings → Users.

3. Look around with example data (optional)

Section titled “3. Look around with example data (optional)”
Terminal window
docker compose exec goliash goliash demo

This fills the workspace with three weeks of realistic history: four targets, seven services, rollouts, drift and new upstream releases. The demo targets are named demo-*, so they are easy to tell apart from real ones.

There are two ways to collect a target.

An agent runs next to the orchestrator and sends snapshots to the server over HTTPS. Use it when the server cannot reach the orchestrator, or when credentials must stay in that network.

  1. Open Connect (on the matrix of a new installation, or Settings → Agents and targets → Connect a cluster or host) and pick what to watch: Kubernetes, a Docker host, Swarm, Nomad, ECS or Compose files.
  2. Fill in one form: the name, the environment (pick one or name a new one), a new agent, and the platform’s settings as plain fields.
  3. Run the command the next page shows where the agent can reach the orchestrator: Helm for Kubernetes, a compose file for Docker, a stack for Swarm, a job for Nomad, a Terraform module for ECS. The token is already in it and shown only once.
  4. Keep the page open: it shows when the agent connects and what its first report found, then takes you to the matrix or the inbox.

The manifests behind those commands are under Install.

Within a minute the first snapshot arrives and workloads appear.

Workloads labelled goliash.service or app.kubernetes.io/name map to services by themselves. Everything else waits in the Inbox, grouped by image with a suggested service name. One click maps every workload that runs the image and adds a rule, so the next ones map by themselves. See Matrix and mapping.