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AstroPulse Platform

AstroPulse is the trust layer for AI operations, and it ships as two products that work together:

  • Nova is your AI platform engineer. It investigates, plans, and acts on your infrastructure, running on the Nova orchestrator engine. See the Nova docs.
  • Astro Platform is the governed runtime Nova acts through, and the operational control plane your team uses directly: provision and operate Kubernetes clusters and applications across AWS, GCP, Azure, and bring-your-own Kubernetes, with the scope, policy, approvals, audit, and rollback that make changes safe in production.

This overview covers Astro Platform. The idea behind it is simple: AI expresses intent, and the runtime decides what is safe to run. Provisioning clusters and deploying applications is the foundation; the durable value is the control layer on top, so your team and Nova operate production through one set of guardrails, not two.

Whether you drive it yourself with astroctl or through Nova, the core workflow is the same:

  1. Install and authenticate with astroctl.
  2. Create or join an organization.
  3. Connect a cloud account or register an existing Kubernetes cluster.
  4. Create an application profile and deploy an application.
  5. Verify health with status, events, logs, and kubeconfig access when needed.

No-Docs Path​

If you do not want to read through setup guides first, open Nova and ask what you want to do:

  • Browser: Open Nova →
  • Console route: /nova
  • Terminal: astroctl nova

For example:

Register my existing Kubernetes cluster with AstroPulse.
Help me deploy a container image to my dev cluster.

Nova can explain the platform, guide cluster and application workflows, help generate manifests, and point you to the exact CLI command or console step when a direct action needs approval.

Start Here​

If you are new to AstroPulse, follow these guides in order:

StepGuideWhat you finish with
1Set up AstroPulseInstalled CLI, authenticated user, active organization
2Understand the core conceptsClear model of organizations, clusters, profiles, and applications
3Deploy or register a clusterA Kubernetes cluster visible to AstroPulse
4Deploy an applicationA running application and commands to inspect it
Fastest path

Use the console to generate cluster YAML, then use astroctl to apply it and stream progress. The console keeps setup approachable, while the CLI gives you a repeatable workflow you can commit to source control.

What Astro Platform Manages​

Astro Platform manages two connected pipelines and the control layer that governs them:

  • Cluster management: Provision managed clusters, create self-hosted clusters, register existing clusters, retrieve kubeconfig, track progress, and coordinate lifecycle operations.
  • Application management: Define application profiles, deploy workloads from multiple source types, monitor deployments, inspect events, and view logs.
  • Governed action: Every change runs inside a scope it cannot exceed, with policy guardrails, human approvals on sensitive operations, a full audit trail, and rollback. This is the control layer that makes it safe for both your team and Nova to act in production.

Organizations are the security and billing boundary. Clusters, application profiles, API keys, members, and applications belong to an organization.

Architecture​

Surfaces
ConsoleGuided UI for onboarding, clusters, profiles, and deployments
NovaConversational workflows with guided approvals
astroctl CLIRepeatable, scriptable command-line workflow
Platform · control plane
Platform APIEndpoints the console, Nova, and CLI call
AstroPlane controllers & agentsReconcile desired state, connect clusters, keep deployments healthy
Infrastructure
Kubernetestoday
ManagedEKS · GKE · AKS
Self-hostedAWS · GCP
Registeredany provider / on-prem

AstroPulse is organized in three layers: the surfaces you work through, the platform control plane that turns intent into governed action, and the infrastructure it operates.

Surfaces​

  • Console: Guided UI for onboarding, organization management, cluster creation, application profiles, and application deployment.
  • Nova: Conversational interface for asking questions, planning changes, generating manifests, and running AstroPulse workflows with guided approvals.
  • astroctl CLI: Repeatable command-line workflow for authentication, cloud setup, cluster operations, deployments, logs, events, and kubeconfig access.

Platform (control plane)​

  • Platform API: The endpoints the console, Nova, and CLI call for cluster, application, organization, notification, and integration operations.
  • AstroPlane controllers and agents: Runtime components that reconcile desired state, connect registered clusters, and keep deployments healthy.

Infrastructure​

Today AstroPulse operates Kubernetes as its infrastructure substrate:

  • Managed Kubernetes: AWS EKS, Google GKE, and Azure AKS.
  • Self-hosted Kubernetes on AWS or GCP infrastructure.
  • Existing clusters from any provider or on-premises environment, through cluster registration.

Kubernetes is the foundation today. The control plane is the durable part of the system: the same governed-action model is designed to extend to more of your infrastructure over time, not just Kubernetes.

Common Next Steps​