Install Lunar

Overview of Lunar installation, covering Hub, CLI, CI Tracer for self-hosted and managed runners, and AI skills for building plugins.

Welcome to the Lunar installation guide.

This section contains step-by-step instructions for installing Lunar. Install these pieces, in this order:

1. Lunar CLI – an admin and development CLI. Install this first: the Hub install walkthrough uses lunar licence to derive your GHCR image-pull secret from your licence JWT before helm install.

   • Install the Lunar CLI
2. Lunar Hub – the central coordination service. Decide how you will run it before the next step, because the Git platform setup differs between the two.

   • Self hosted – you operate the Hub on your own Kubernetes:

     • Overview – the lay of the land: services, dependencies, ports.
     • Prerequisites – what to have in place before helm install.
     • Install walkthrough – step-by-step from zero to a working Hub.
     • Day-2 operations – upgrades, secret rotation, observability, uninstall.
   • Lunar Dedicated – Earthly provisions, operates, and upgrades a single-tenant install in a dedicated AWS account:

     • Overview – how it works, how you reach it, and how it handles your data.
     • Setup – what your side does: the questionnaire, the depositor account, and the secret deposit.
     • PrivateLink to your hub – the recommended way for your CI and browsers to reach the install, where your CI runs in a network you control.
     • PrivateLink to your systems – only if Lunar's collectors must reach systems that aren't on the public internet. Longest lead time in onboarding, so start it first.
3. Git platform – the credential the Hub reads repositories and posts results with. The Hub will not start without one, so create it before you finish the install above: before helm install when self-hosted, or before kickoff on Dedicated.

   • GitHub for a GitHub App on your org, or GitLab for a group access token per top-level group.
   • Git Platforms – what differs between the two, if you are choosing or running both.
4. CI integration – how Lunar gets build-time data, via the Lunar CI Tracer. This step depends on your CI:

   • GitHub Actions – install the tracer on self-hosted runners, or use the action on GitHub-hosted ones.
   • Buildkite – an agent hook plus a webhook; see Buildkite.
   • GitLab CI – nothing to install; tracing support is coming soon. Lunar collects from source events instead — see GitLab.
5. Sync Config – strongly recommended. Push your config repo to Lunar Hub on every push, via the GitHub Action or a GitLab CI job, so the Hub's copy of your configuration never drifts from what's in git.

   • Set up config sync

Optional:

• AI Skills – agent skills for building collectors and policies.

Want to try Lunar without installing anything? Get in touch for a guided demo or preview.

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Before diving in, browse the 200+ pre-built guardrails and 60+ integrations available out of the box.