Build, push, and deploy Kurtosis dev images to a Kubernetes cluster without creating a release. Rebuilds engine, core, and files-artifacts-expander as multi-arch Docker images with a unique tag, pushes to the logged-in user's Docker Hub, and restarts the engine. Use when testing local code changes on a k8s cluster.
Build and deploy Kurtosis from source to a Kubernetes cluster for testing without making a release.
Three container images must be built and pushed:
engine — from engine/server/Dockerfilecore (APIC) — from core/server/Dockerfilefiles-artifacts-expander — from core/files_artifacts_expander/DockerfileThe CLI binary is also rebuilt locally.
All images share the same tag, which is set in kurtosis_version/kurtosis_version.go as KurtosisVersion. This version is compiled into the engine binary and used at runtime to pull the core and files-artifacts-expander images.
DOCKER_USER=$(docker info 2>/dev/null | grep Username | awk '{print $2}')
TAG="$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)-$(date +%s)"
Edit these three constants to replace kurtosistech with $DOCKER_USER:
| File | Constant | Default Value |
|---|---|---|
engine/launcher/engine_server_launcher/engine_server_launcher.go | containerImage | kurtosistech/engine |
core/launcher/api_container_launcher/api_container_launcher.go | containerImage | kurtosistech/core |
core/server/api_container/server/startosis_engine/kurtosis_types/service_config/service_config.go | filesArtifactsExpanderImage | kurtosistech/files-artifacts-expander |
Edit kurtosis_version/kurtosis_version.go and set KurtosisVersion to the generated $TAG.
IMPORTANT: Always use a unique tag (include a timestamp) to avoid Kubernetes node image caching issues. Nodes with imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent won't re-pull an image with the same tag.
# Engine
CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 go build -o engine/server/build/kurtosis-engine.arm64 engine/server/engine/main.go
CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build -o engine/server/build/kurtosis-engine.amd64 engine/server/engine/main.go
# Core (APIC)
CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 go build -o core/server/build/api-container.arm64 core/server/api_container/main.go
CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build -o core/server/build/api-container.amd64 core/server/api_container/main.go
# Files Artifacts Expander
CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 go build -o core/files_artifacts_expander/build/files-artifacts-expander.arm64 core/files_artifacts_expander/main.go
CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build -o core/files_artifacts_expander/build/files-artifacts-expander.amd64 core/files_artifacts_expander/main.go
# CLI (local use)
go build -o /tmp/kurtosis ./cli/cli/
Ensure a buildx builder exists (create with docker buildx create --name kurtosis-builder --use if needed).
docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 --builder kurtosis-builder --no-cache -t $DOCKER_USER/engine:$TAG --push engine/server/
docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 --builder kurtosis-builder --no-cache -t $DOCKER_USER/core:$TAG --push core/server/
docker buildx build --platform linux/amd64,linux/arm64 --builder kurtosis-builder --no-cache -t $DOCKER_USER/files-artifacts-expander:$TAG --push core/files_artifacts_expander/
IMPORTANT: Always use --no-cache to prevent buildx from caching old binaries.
/tmp/kurtosis engine stop
# Clean any leftover namespaces
kubectl get ns | grep kurtosis | awk '{print $1}' | xargs -r kubectl delete ns
/tmp/kurtosis engine start
/tmp/kurtosis gateway &
/tmp/kurtosis run github.com/ethpandaops/ethereum-package
/tmp/kurtosis clean -a
When making further code changes, repeat from step 3 with a new unique tag each time. Never reuse a tag — k8s nodes cache images and won't pull updates under the same tag.
kubectl get pods -A | grep kurtosis.