Prerequisites

LoKO requires several external tools to function. This page explains each prerequisite and how to install it.

Required Tools

Python 3.9+

LoKO is written in Python and requires Python 3.9 or higher.

Check version:

python --version

Install:

macOS

brew install python@3.11

Linux

sudo apt update
sudo apt install python3.11 python3-pip

Docker

Container runtime for running Kind clusters.

Check version:

docker --version

Install:

macOS

Download Docker Desktop for Mac

Linux

curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
newgrp docker

Kind

Kubernetes in Docker - creates local Kubernetes clusters.

Check version:

kind --version

Install:

macOS

brew install kind

Linux

curl -Lo ./kind https://kind.sigs.k8s.io/dl/latest/kind-linux-amd64
chmod +x ./kind
sudo mv ./kind /usr/local/bin/kind

Helm

Kubernetes package manager.

Check version:

helm version

Install:

macOS

brew install helm

Linux

curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/helm/helm/main/scripts/get-helm-3 | bash

Helmfile

Declarative Helm deployment tool.

Check version:

helmfile version

Install:

macOS

brew install helmfile

Linux

curl -L https://github.com/helmfile/helmfile/releases/latest/download/helmfile_linux_amd64 -o helmfile
chmod +x helmfile
sudo mv helmfile /usr/local/bin/

cfssl

Certificate toolkit used by LoKO to generate its local CA and wildcard certificates.

Check version:

cfssl version

Install:

macOS

brew install cfssl

Linux

# install cfssl from your distro packages or the official Cloudflare releases

Git

Required for GitOps repository seeding and bootstrap flows.

Check version:

git --version

Install:

macOS

brew install git

Linux

sudo apt install git

kubectl

Kubernetes command-line tool.

Check version:

kubectl version --client

Install:

macOS

brew install kubectl

Linux

curl -LO "https://dl.k8s.io/release/$(curl -L -s https://dl.k8s.io/release/stable.txt)/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl"
chmod +x kubectl
sudo mv kubectl /usr/local/bin/

Optional Tools

nss / libnss3-tools

Required for Firefox/NSS trust installation.

macOS

brew install nss

Linux

sudo apt install libnss3-tools

Mise (Recommended)

Tool version manager that can install all prerequisites.

curl https://mise.run | sh

Then:

cd loko-repo
mise install

ngrok

Required for loko tunnel share — exposes local workloads to the internet via a public ngrok URL.

Install: ngrok.com/download

macOS

brew install ngrok/ngrok/ngrok

Linux

curl -sSL https://ngrok-agent.s3.amazonaws.com/ngrok.asc | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/ngrok.asc >/dev/null \
  && echo "deb https://ngrok-agent.s3.amazonaws.com buster main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ngrok.list \
  && sudo apt update && sudo apt install ngrok

After installing, authenticate with your ngrok account:

ngrok config add-authtoken <your-token>

Get your token at dashboard.ngrok.com.

Verification

After installing all prerequisites, verify with:

loko check prerequisites

This checks for:

• ✅ Docker (running)
• ✅ Kind (installed)
• ✅ Helm (installed)
• ✅ Helmfile (installed)
• ✅ cfssl (installed)
• ✅ git (installed)
• ✅ kubectl (installed)
• ✅ stern, aws, mise (optional)
• ✅ ngrok (optional — required for loko tunnel share)

First-Run Experience

loko automatically checks prerequisites on first run. When you run any loko command for the first time (except --help, --version, or completion commands), loko will:

1. Display “First run: Checking prerequisites…”
2. Check all required tools (Docker, git, kind, helm, kubectl, cfssl, helmfile)
3. Show status for each tool with install URLs if missing
4. If missing required tools: show error panel with clear installation guidance
5. If all prerequisites met: suggest loko config generate to create your first configuration
6. Create a sentinel file (~/.loko/.first-run-v1) to mark checks complete

Example first-run output:

First run: Checking prerequisites...

✅ Docker (24.0.7) - Running
✅ kind (0.20.0) - Installed
✅ helm (3.13.0) - Installed
✅ kubectl (1.28.2) - Installed
✅ cfssl - Installed
✅ git - Installed
✅ helmfile (0.157.0) - Installed

✅ All required tools are installed!

Next step: Create configuration
  loko config generate  # Generate configuration from template

If tools are missing:

The first-run check will show installation guidance and exit. After installing the missing tools, run any loko command again to re-check.

Manual check:

You can manually run prerequisite checks at any time:

loko check prerequisites

Force re-run first-run checks:

loko check prerequisites --force

This bypasses the sentinel file and runs checks even if they’ve been completed before.

System Requirements

Minimum:

• 4 GB RAM
• 2 CPU cores
• 10 GB disk space

Recommended:

• 8 GB RAM
• 4 CPU cores
• 20 GB disk space

Port Requirements

LoKO uses these ports by default:

Port	Service	Configurable
80	HTTP (Traefik)	No
443	HTTPS (Traefik)	No
6443	Kubernetes API	Yes (cluster.kubernetes.api-port)

Check port availability:

loko config port-check

Next Steps

• Installation Guide - Install LoKO
• Quick Start - Create your first cluster