Tarak

Tarak is a lightning-fast, lightweight, and native container orchestration platform that works everywhere—without requiring Docker Desktop, WSL, or heavy VMs. Compatible with Kubernetes APIs, but reimagined for pure speed, minimal memory usage, and zero external dependencies.

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⚡ Quick Installation

Linux & macOS (One-Line Install)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vikukumar/tarak/main/install.sh | bash

Windows (PowerShell One-Line Install)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vikukumar/tarak/main/install.ps1 | iex

Go SDK Package (for developers)

go get -u github.com/vikukumar/tarak/pkg/client@latest

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🚀 Why Tarak vs Kubernetes & K3s?

Feature / Metric	⚡ Tarak	⛵ K3s	☸️ Standard Kubernetes (K8s)
Idle RAM Footprint	< 25 MB	~500 MB	~1.2 GB+
Cold Start Time	< 180 ms	10 – 20 sec	45 – 90 sec
Windows Native Isolation	Native (Zero WSL / No Hyper-V)	Requires WSL2	Requires Docker/WSL2
External Dependencies	0 (Pure Go Standalone)	containerd, runc	containerd/CRI-O, etcd, CNI
Kubernetes API Compatibility	100% Core K8s API Compliant	100% Compliant	Standard
Cross-Platform Support	Windows / Linux / macOS (ARM64 & AMD64)	Linux only (WSL on Win)	Linux only (WSL on Win)

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📦 Included Binaries in Release

Each release includes ready-to-run binaries for all platforms and architectures:

• ⚡ tarak: The All-in-One unified runtime (Server + Agent + Init + CLI in one single executable).
• 🖥️ tarakd: The dedicated standalone API server & control-plane daemon.
• 🤖 taraks: The dedicated lightweight worker node runtime agent.
• 🎮 tarakctl (alias taraktl): The high-performance Kubernetes-compatible CLI control tool.

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🛠️ Quick Start

1. Start the Server

Start the Tarak API Server and native node runtime locally:

tarak server

2. Deploy an App

Using tarakctl, deploy a sample workload. It automatically extracts and runs real OCI containers:

tarakctl apply -f app-sample.yml
tarakctl get pods -n demo -o wide

3. Access your Workload

tarakctl port-forward pod/web-app-pod 8080:80 -n demo

Visit http://localhost:8080 in your browser!

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🔌 Reusable Go Client SDK Example

You can embed Tarak orchestration directly into your Go applications using pkg/client:

package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"
    "log"

    "github.com/vikukumar/tarak/pkg/client"
)

func main() {
    c, err := client.NewClientFromKubeconfig("")
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    pods, err := c.Pods("default").List(context.Background())
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    for _, p := range pods {
        fmt.Printf("Pod: %s (Phase: %s, IP: %s)\n", p.Name, p.Phase, p.IP)
    }
}

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📖 Full Documentation & GitHub Pages

Visit the live interactive documentation portal: 👉 https://vikukumar.github.io/tarak/

• 📚 Getting Started Guide
• 🏛️ System Architecture
• 💻 CLI Reference
• 📦 Releases & Changelog Explorer

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🤝 Contributing

Contributions make the open source community such an amazing place to learn, inspire, and create. Please read our CONTRIBUTING.md and CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md.

🛡️ Security

If you discover a security vulnerability within Tarak, please refer to SECURITY.md.

📄 License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for more information.