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Quickstart

Paqtra — trace every flow. Get up and running in minutes.

Prerequisites​

ComponentRequirement
Rust1.75+ (TUI and web-api)
Node.js18+ with npm (20+ recommended for web-ui)
DockerOptional, for containerised deployment
kubectlRequired for TUI; cluster must have Cilium + Hubble enabled

Quick Start (TUI)​

git clone https://github.com/zyvorai/paqtra.git
cd paqtra

cargo build --release
./target/release/paqtra

Key Bindings​

? = Help q = Quit Tab = Next tab
e = Explain packet (Flows)
g = Generate a = Apply (AutoPolicy)
s = Simulate (Simulator)
t = Time-travel (Replay)
Enter = Run experiment (Chaos)
p = Promote r = Rollback (Canary)

Quick Start (Web Stack)​

# 1. Configure environment
cp deployments/.env.example deployments/.env
# Edit deployments/.env: set JWT_SECRET (≥32 chars) and ADMIN_PASSWORD (≥12 chars)

# 2. Start all services (API + UI + Redis)
make docker-up

# Combined stack (typical remote deploy): http://localhost:9191
# Compose UI-only mapping may also expose http://localhost:3001
# API: http://localhost:9191

To stop:

make docker-down

Option B: Run manually​

# Terminal 1 - build and run the API
cd web-api
cargo build --release
JWT_SECRET=change-me-to-a-real-secret-at-least-32-chars \
ADMIN_PASSWORD=change-me-to-a-strong-password \
cargo run --release

# Terminal 2 - build and run the UI
cd web-ui
npm ci
npm run build # production build in dist/
npm run dev # or start the dev server on :3000 (proxies /api to :9191)

Development​

make dev # TUI: format, check, build
make api-dev # Web API dev server
make ui-dev # Web UI Vite dev server (port 3000, proxies /api to :9191)
make test-all # Run all tests (TUI + API + UI)
make check-all # Lint/check all components
make build-all # Production build of everything

Kubernetes Deployment​

Production-ready manifests live in deployments/k8s/. The directory contains Deployments, Services, Ingress, RBAC, ConfigMap, and Secrets resources for the full stack (API, UI, Redis).

kubectl apply -f deployments/k8s/

Review and update deployments/k8s/secrets.yaml with your own JWT secret before applying.

Helm chart: helm install paqtra ./chart.

Web UI Keyboard Shortcuts​

/ = Search ? = Shortcuts help
r = Refresh Esc = Close modal
g h = Dashboard g f = Flows g t = Topology g p = Policies

Next Steps​