Aether

One YAML. Three runtimes. Zero lock-in.

The universal runtime control plane: deploy the same workload to Podman, Kubernetes and KubeVirt, then migrate between them without rewriting infrastructure. Declare what you care about (cost, performance, reliability), let the intent engine score the lanes, and move running workloads with immediate, blue-green, rolling or canary strategies.

3 runtimes, 1 workload YAML · 4 migration strategies · KubeVirt live migration · CLI · TUI · web · REST + SSE · Apache-2.0, Rust

Releases · User Guide · Docs

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What's new in 0.4.0

Apache-2.0 open source	Aether-core is fully Apache-2.0; confidential computing (Ragnarok) moved to a separate product
KubeVirt live migration	kubevirt.liveMigration renders evictionStrategy: LiveMigrate; aether live-migrate <name> creates a VirtualMachineInstanceMigration and watches it
KubeVirt vGPU	requirements.gpu.vgpuProfile attaches mediated vGPU slices instead of VFIO passthrough
Logs and Shell for discovered pods and VMs	Pods, Deployments, StatefulSets, DaemonSets, VirtualMachines and VMIs, gated to Operator / Admin
RBAC API	Admin / Operator / Viewer roles enforced in middleware, with key create / list / revoke endpoints
NetworkPolicy and custom-metric HPA	Generated from the workload spec

Full list: CHANGELOG.md.

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Why Aether

Most teams write the app once, then rewrite the deploy story three times.

When this happens…	Aether gives you…
The same app needs a Podman host, a Kubernetes cluster and a KubeVirt VM	One aether/v1 Workload YAML with runtime.allow: [kube, podman, kubevirt]
Nobody can say why a workload runs where it does	An intent engine that scores Podman / Kubernetes / KubeVirt on cost, performance and reliability, and aether decide --explain
Moving between runtimes means a rewrite and a maintenance window	Migration between runtime pairs with immediate, blue-green, rolling or canary strategies, drain, health gates and rollback paths
A VM has to move hosts without downtime	KubeVirt live migration with vGPU-aware validation
Every tool has its own console	CLI, TUI, web dashboard and REST + SSE API on the same control plane and state
Read-only users can do more than read	Admin / Operator / Viewer RBAC and an HMAC-verified audit trail

Intent engine Declare what you care about — cost, performance, reliability. Aether scores Podman / Kubernetes / KubeVirt and recommends (or selects) the lane.

Every runtime pair Immediate, blue-green, rolling or canary. KubeVirt live migration with vGPU-aware validation.

One brain, many surfaces CLI, TUI, glass web dashboard, and REST + SSE API — same control plane, same state.

Aether is Terraform for where workloads run — not just what they are.

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Aether vs HashiCorp Nomad

	Aether	HashiCorp Nomad
What it is	A portability plane over runtimes you already run	Its own cluster scheduler (servers + client agents)
Workload definition	One aether/v1 Workload YAML	HCL jobspec
Where workloads run	Podman, Kubernetes, KubeVirt	Nomad clients, through task drivers (Docker, exec, QEMU, Java, …)
Kubernetes and KubeVirt	First-class deploy targets	Not deploy targets
Cross-runtime migration	Between runtime pairs, immediate / blue-green / rolling / canary, plus KubeVirt live migration	No
Intent-based runtime selection	Scores runtimes on cost, performance, reliability	No
License	Apache-2.0 (Aether-core)	Business Source License
Choose Nomad when		You want one scheduler for containers, VMs and binaries and do not run Kubernetes

Is this for you?

Aether is a small, open-source (Apache-2.0 core) runtime portability plane — one workload spec that scores and migrates across Podman, Kubernetes, and KubeVirt. It's not a container orchestrator competing with Kubernetes itself, not a generic config-management tool, and its confidential-computing product (Ragnarok) is explicitly a separate, proprietary Zyvor product not shipped in this repository.

	Aether	Docker Compose	HashiCorp Nomad	Crossplane	Score (score.dev spec)
Primary scope	One spec, score + migrate across Podman/Kubernetes/KubeVirt	Single-host/single-runtime container orchestration	Its own cluster scheduler (not multi-runtime-portable)	Cloud infra provisioning via Kubernetes CRDs	A workload spec standard, not a runtime/migration engine itself
Cross-runtime migration	Yes — 9 runtime-pair paths, immediate/blue-green/rolling, KubeVirt live migration	No	No	No	No — Score defines the spec; implementations vary
Intent-based runtime selection	Yes — declare cost/performance/reliability, Aether scores and recommends/selects	No	No	No	No
License	Apache-2.0 (Aether-core); Enterprise/Ragnarok proprietary, separate	Apache-2.0	Business Source License (Nomad)	Apache-2.0	Apache-2.0 (spec)

(General characterizations as of writing — verify current features against each project's own docs.)

Already has an FAQ: see docs/index.md for general questions and docs/guides/migration/MIGRATION-INTERNALS.md for a dedicated 10-question buyer FAQ (e.g. "Does migration copy my database?"). Troubleshooting sections exist per-topic across the docs tree (KUBEVIRT.md, MIGRATION.md, TUI.md, docs/guides/operations/RUNBOOK.md's "Common Issues", and more) rather than one consolidated file.

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How it fits together

flowchart TB
  subgraph Surfaces
    W[Web Dashboard]
    T[TUI]
    C[CLI]
  end
  subgraph ControlPlane[Control Plane]
    API[Axum API + SSE]
    I[Intent Engine]
    M[Migration Engine]
    P[Policy · RBAC · Audit]
  end
  subgraph Runtimes
    Podman
    K8s[Kubernetes]
    KV[KubeVirt]
  end
  W --> API
  T --> API
  C --> API
  API --> I
  API --> M
  API --> P
  I --> Podman
  I --> K8s
  I --> KV
  M --> Podman
  M --> K8s
  M --> KV

Loading

Path	Purpose
src/	Control plane — CLI, API, adapters, intelligence
web/dashboard/	React 18 + TypeScript + Tailwind glass UI
examples/	Specs you can run today
helm/ · packaging/	Cluster & OS packaging
docs/	Guides, architecture, user manuals

Interface	How
CLI	aether run · migrate · serve · live-migrate · …
API	http://localhost:5090/api/*
TUI	aether ui
Web	aether serve → browser

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Quickstart

Requirements: a Linux or macOS host, plus whichever runtimes you target (Podman, a Kubernetes cluster, KubeVirt on that cluster).

Install a release binary

# macOS Apple Silicon
curl -LO https://github.com/zyvorai/Aether/releases/download/v0.4.0/aether-macos-arm64
chmod +x aether-macos-arm64 && sudo mv aether-macos-arm64 /usr/local/bin/aether

# Linux amd64
curl -LO https://github.com/zyvorai/Aether/releases/download/v0.4.0/aether-linux-amd64
chmod +x aether-linux-amd64 && sudo mv aether-linux-amd64 /usr/local/bin/aether

aether --help

Also available: macOS amd64 (aether-macos-amd64) and .sha256 checksums on the Releases page.

Run from GHCR (container)

Official images publish from the Release workflow to GitHub Container Registry:

# Pull
docker pull ghcr.io/zyvorai/aether:0.4.0
# or: docker pull ghcr.io/zyvorai/aether:latest

# CLI via container (mount state + kubeconfig)
docker run --rm -it \
  -v "$HOME/.aether:/root/.aether" \
  -v "$HOME/.kube:/root/.kube:ro" \
  -v "$(pwd):/work" -w /work \
  ghcr.io/zyvorai/aether:0.4.0 --help

# API + glass dashboard on :5090
docker run --rm -p 5090:5090 \
  -v "$HOME/.aether:/root/.aether" \
  ghcr.io/zyvorai/aether:0.4.0 serve --host 0.0.0.0 --port 5090

Tags: latest, 0.4.0, 0.4, 0 — image: ghcr.io/zyvorai/aether.

Run a workload

aether init
aether run --spec examples/demo-webserver.yaml
aether list --output wide

# Glass dashboard + API
aether serve
# → http://localhost:5090

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/zyvorai/Aether.git && cd Aether
(cd web/dashboard && npm ci && npm run build)   # embedded UI assets
cargo build --release
./target/release/aether --help

The entire contract

apiVersion: aether/v1
kind: Workload
metadata:
  name: demo-webserver
requirements:
  cpu: "500m"
  memory: 256Mi
runtime:
  preferred: kube
  allow: [kube, podman, kubevirt]
network:
  service: true
  ports:
    - containerPort: 8080
      servicePort: 80

One file. Three possible homes. Aether decides — or you override.

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Migration matrix

From → To	Podman	Kubernetes	KubeVirt
Podman	—	Yes	Yes
Kubernetes	Yes	—	Yes
KubeVirt	Yes	Yes	Yes · live-migrate

# Blue-green across runtimes
aether migrate my-app --from kube --to kubevirt --strategy blue-green

# Node-to-node KubeVirt live migration
aether live-migrate my-vm --watch-timeout 120

# Intent re-score
aether score --spec workload.yaml

Strategies: immediate · blue-green · rolling · canary — with drain, health gates, and rollback paths.

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Glass dashboard

Zyvor-orange accent on macOS-26-style glass — not another Bootstrap admin theme.

• SSE live updates after mutations
• Command palette — ⌘K / Ctrl+K
• Workload detail — Overview · Logs · Drift · Scoring
• Discovered pods & VMs — Logs + Shell (Operator / Admin)
• Intent debugger — SVG radar for cost / performance / reliability / availability

aether serve          # → http://localhost:5090
# or: cd web/dashboard && npm run dev

Demo login (local): admin / Admin@321

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Documentation

Want…	Go here
Full feature map	User Guide · PDF
Install / 5-minute start	Installation · Quick Start
Migration internals	MIGRATION-INTERNALS
Scoring / intent	Decision engine
Docs index	docs/README.md
Contributing	CONTRIBUTING.md

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Development

make ci          # tests + clippy + dashboard build + vitest
cargo test
cargo clippy --all-targets --all-features
cd web/dashboard && npm run test && npm run check:hex-surfaces

Conventional Commits (feat:, fix:, docs:). PRs welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

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Maturity

Maturity, stated honestly: current release is v0.4.0. See docs/ROADMAP.md, which explicitly separates "Shipped" from "Q3–Q4 targets" rather than making inflated claims.

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Part of the Zyvor stack

Part of the Zyvor private-cloud stack — Aether is the universal runtime portability plane.

Product	Role next to Aether
Aether	Runtime portability plane: one workload spec across Podman, Kubernetes and KubeVirt
Atlas	Storage control plane; a persistence.storage_class of atlas/<policy> provisions the volume through Atlas (AETHER_ATLAS_URL)
GuestKit	Guest VM inspection and tooling, listed in Aether's ecosystem
Zorvia	KubeVirt VM platform; pairs with Aether's KubeVirt lane

→ zyvor.dev

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License

Aether is free and open source under the Apache License 2.0 (see NOTICE). That does not change.

Confidential computing (Ragnarok) is a separate Zyvor product and is not shipped in this repository.

Zyvor Enterprise adds what production teams ask for: supported releases, deployment and upgrade guidance, priority incident triage, a named technical contact and 24x7 critical intake. Plans and terms: docs/SUBSCRIPTION-MODEL.md · Pricing · sales@zyvor.dev.

Contributions: CONTRIBUTING.md.

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Stop rewriting deploys. Start moving runtimes.

_{Built with Rust · Glass · Intent · by ZyvorAI Labs}