What kcore does

An honest look at the platform. Here's what's built, what works, and why we made the choices we did.

<5s
VM Provisioning Time
100%
Rollback Success Rate
0
Downtime Updates

Atomic Updates & Instant Rollback

kcore runs on NixOS, which means system updates are transactional. If something goes wrong, you boot into the previous generation. No partial states, no manual cleanup.

  • ✓
    Immutable Base System
    The host OS is read-only. Configuration lives in Nix, not scattered across /etc.
  • ✓
    Boot into Previous Generation
    Every NixOS generation is kept. Select a previous one at boot or switch remotely.
  • ✓
    Reproducible Builds
    The ISO is built from a flake.nix. Same inputs, same output, every time.
Version 1 (Current)
↓
Apply Update → Version 2
↓
✓ Health Check Passed
or
✗ Health Check Failed
↓
Auto Rollback → Version 1

Infrastructure as Code

VMs are resources in Terraform. You write HCL, run terraform apply, and the provider talks to the kcore API over gRPC. Standard workflow, no special tooling.

  • 📝
    Real Terraform Provider
    Written in Go using the Terraform Plugin SDK. Not a shell wrapper.
  • 🔄
    Git-friendly
    HCL and YAML are text files. Diff them, review them, track changes over time.
  • 📊
    Desired State
    The controller stores desired state. Node agents reconcile. Standard controller pattern. 
# Infrastructure as Code
resource "kcore_vm" "web" {
  count  = 3
  name   = "web-${count.index}"
  memory = 4096
  vcpu   = 2
  
  disk {
    size         = "50GB"
    storage_class = "ssd"
  }
  
  network {
    name = "production"
  }
}

resource "kcore_vm" "db" {
  name   = "postgres"
  memory = 8192
  vcpu   = 4
  
  disk {
    size         = "200GB"
    storage_class = "nvme"
  }
}

AI Agent Integration

kcore includes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) server. Any MCP-compatible AI agent can list nodes, create VMs, check status, and generate Terraform configs through it.

  • 🤖
    MCP Server
    Runs alongside the controller. Exposes tools for VM and node management over MCP.
  • 💡
    Terraform Output
    Agents generate HCL you can read and modify. No black-box deployments.
  • 📈
    Query Infrastructure
    Agents can check VM status, node health, and resource usage to help you troubleshoot.
User:
"Create a web cluster with 3 servers, load balanced, with a PostgreSQL database"
⚡ AI Processing
AI Agent:
"I'll create that infrastructure for you:"
✓ 3x web servers (4GB RAM each)
✓ 1x PostgreSQL (8GB RAM)
✓ Load balancer configured
✓ Network policies applied
✓ All resources deployed successfully

How kcore Compares

Feature kcore Traditional VMs Container Orchestration
Atomic Updates ✓ ✗ ✓
Instant Rollback ✓ ✗ ✓
Infrastructure as Code ✓ Partial ✓
AI Integration ✓ ✗ ✗
Full OS Isolation ✓ ✓ ✗
Legacy App Support ✓ ✓ Limited
Resource Efficiency High Medium Very High
Learning Curve Low Low High

Give it a spin

The docs walk you through building the ISO and booting your first node.

Read the Docs Get Started