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If you are looking to try out some APIs and integrations without deploying an full node - you can start API server directly from the CLI tool as:
kamu system api-server
Ready to give Kamu Node a try? This guide will help you deploy all components of Kamu Node and Kamu Web Platform on your local machine in a few simple steps. Use it to familiarize yourself with the process of deploying all components in a minimalistic configuration. Once you are ready to deploy a production-ready node instance please refer to the Deployment Manual.

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Prerequisites

Kamu Node is a Kubernetes-native application and this guide assumes basic familiarity with Kubernetes. If you worked with docker-compose before - you will see a few new tools, but shouldn’t encounter any problems. Before we begin, you will need the following tools installed:
  1. git - to clone the kamu-deploy-example repo
  2. minikube - to create a local Kubernetes cluster
  3. kubectl - client for interacting with Kubernetes cluster
  4. helm - software management tool for Kubernetes
  5. helmfile - “infrastructure-as-code” wrapper for helm
  6. aws-cli (optional) - needed to download example datasets

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Start your cluster

First we will start by creating a local Kubernetes cluster using minikube: 
minikube start
You can also specify how much resources to allocate to the cluster. For example, we can let it use all available resources as:
minikube start --cpus no-limit --memory no-limit
Once command finishes you should have a fully functional Kubernetes cluster running on your local machine! Ensure that kubectl client can communicate with your new cluster: 
kubectl get pods --all-namespaces

NAMESPACE     NAME                               READY   STATUS    RESTARTS  AGE
kube-system   kube-apiserver-minikube            1/1     Running   0         2m8s
kube-system   etcd-minikube                      1/1     Running   0         2m7s
...

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Clone the example repo

While we could deploy all components by running helm install commands, we will use “infrastructure-as-code” approach where the entire state of our deployment is described by files in a git repository. Go ahead and clone the kamu-deploy-example repo: 
git clone https://github.com/kamu-data/kamu-deploy-example.git
cd kamu-deploy-example

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Select components

By default all components are enabled, but if, for example, you don’t need JupyterHub open: 
environments/minikube/environment.yaml
and modify it to: 
jupyterHub:
  enabled: false

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Deploy Kamu Node

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Using convenience script

To get all components installed and running you can use a convenience script: 
./sync.sh
Multiple container images will be downloaded in the process, so if script times-out it’s safe to re-run again.
Once it completes it’s just a matter of exposing a few ports: 
./port-forward.sh

=============== Kamu Web UI ===============
Web UI (fwd):     http://localhost:4200
Web UI:           http://192.168.X.X:30211

=============== JupyterHub ================
Web UI (fwd):     http://localhost:4300
Web UI:           http://192.168.X.X:30230

================ Kamu Node ================
GraphQL / REST:   http://192.168.X.X:30201
FlightSQL:        http://192.168.X.X:31402

================== Minio ==================
Minio API:        http://192.168.X.X:30401
Minio Console:    http://192.168.X.X:30402
Username:         admin
Password:         password123

Forwarding from 127.0.0.1:4200 -> 8080
Forwarding from 127.0.0.1:4300 -> 8000
Press Ctrl+C to exit
You can now open the provided Kamu Web UI URL in your browser and see the Kamu Web Platform interface.

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Using helmfile

Instead of the convenience script you can use helmfile directly to synchronize the current state the cluster with the desired state of our deployment defined in configuration files: 
export MINIKUBE_HOST=$(minikube ip)
helmfile -e minikube sync
Either way you will now have multiple kamu component pods running: 
kubectl get pods

NAME                               READY   STATUS      RESTARTS   AGE
kamu-api-server-79974ff49c-5bb7s   1/1     Running     0          1h
kamu-web-ui-85fb7b7957-vb5kf       1/1     Running     0          1h
minio-58c59dd784-4jkfk             1/1     Running     0          1h
minio-provisioning-zfz5n           0/1     Completed   0          1h
...

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Example Content

If you open the Kamu Web UI URL in your browser you will see a functional but very empty platform. To load some example data to play with use: 
./bootstrap-examples.sh
Refresh the browser tab and you should see a lot of new pipelines to explore.

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Superset example

We are still working on automated Superset examples setup, so to see some data follow these simple steps:
  1. Run port-forward.sh script
  2. Open Superset Web UI and login
  3. Go to “Settings” > “Database connections”
  4. Select ”+ Database” using type “Other”
  5. Display name: kamu
  6. For Sqlalchemy URL use: 
    datafusion+flightsql://kamu:kamu@192.168.49.2:30241?insecure=True
    replacing the IP/port with the output of port-forward.sh script for FlightSQL protocol
  7. Now go to Datasets tab and create one for kamu/co.alphavantage.tickers.daily.spy
  8. Create a Line Chart by:
    1. dropping event_time onto X-Axis
    2. dropping close onto Metrics
    3. hitting Create chart at the bottom

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Making changes

After the initial deployment, if you modify any configuration you can easily apply your changes to the deployment using a convenience script: 
./apply.sh
Or manually: 
helmfile -e minikube apply

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Under the hood

Main entry point of this repository is helmfile.yaml which:
  • Configures some basic helm parameters (e.g. deployment timeouts)
  • Connects Kamu’s helm chart repository
  • Defines the minikube environment
  • And defines a multi-layer structure for supplying configuration values to individual helm chart releases
The skeleton helmfile.yaml provided in this example is simple yet very capable. It can be a good foundation for operating multiple different Kamu Node environments in production.

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What’s Next?

See Architecture section for the description of all components we have installed and how they interoperate. Once you get familiar and comfortable with this local setup - proceed to the Deployment Manual for instructions on setting up a production-grade environment. Oh, and don’t forget to clean up your minikube environment: 
minikube delete
Last modified on March 16, 2026