Quickstart: Kubernetes

Attach a Swytch sidecar to a small application and send Redis commands over localhost.

Prerequisites

Use Kubernetes 1.33 or newer, Helm, kubectl, and the swytch CLI to generate credentials. You need permission to install the operator’s CRD, RBAC, and admission webhook. The cluster must be able to pull the operator and Swytch images.

1. Install the operator

Use a released Swytch checkout containing operator/, with the chart and images from that release. From the checkout root:

helm install swytch ./operator/charts/swytch-operator \
  --namespace swytch-system --create-namespace --wait

Install one operator per Kubernetes cluster. The chart installs the webhook certificates; cert-manager is not required. For a custom build, follow the operator build instructions.

2. Create a namespace and credential

kubectl create namespace swytch-demo
kubectl -n swytch-demo create secret generic swytch-secret \
  --from-literal=cluster-passphrase="$(swytch gen-passphrase)"

This credential authenticates traffic between Swytch peers. Keep it private.

3. Attach the sidecar

Save this as app-cache.yaml:

apiVersion: swytch.getswytch.com/v1alpha1
kind: Swytch
metadata:
  name: app-cache
  namespace: swytch-demo
spec:
  deployment: sidecar
  memory: 512Mi
  sidecar:
    transport: tcp
  discovery:
    dns:
      secretKeyRef:
        name: swytch-secret
        key: cluster-passphrase
---
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  name: example-app
  namespace: swytch-demo
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: example-app
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: example-app
      annotations:
        swytch.getswytch.com/profile: app-cache
    spec:
      containers:
        - name: app
          image: redis:7.4-alpine
          command: [ sh, -c, 'while true; do redis-cli -h 127.0.0.1 PING; sleep 10; done' ]

The redis image supplies the demonstration client. The operator supplies the Swytch server. Put the profile annotation on the Pod template, as shown.

kubectl apply -f app-cache.yaml
kubectl -n swytch-demo rollout status deployment/example-app
kubectl -n swytch-demo logs deployment/example-app -c app

The application log should show PONG.

4. Read and write

kubectl -n swytch-demo exec deployment/example-app -c app -- \
  redis-cli SET greeting hello
kubectl -n swytch-demo exec deployment/example-app -c app -- \
  redis-cli GET greeting

Expect OK, then hello. Your own application uses the same 127.0.0.1:6379 endpoint. The operator does not set application connection variables.

This example stores data in memory. Replacing its only Pod loses that state. Choose tiering before depending on restart recovery.

Next steps

Sidecar mode for an existing application and Unix sockets.
Scaling to add application replicas.
Operations for upgrades, health, and resource limits.

To remove this demo, delete its namespace. This deletes the demo state and credentials:

kubectl delete namespace swytch-demo

The operator stays installed for other workloads.