Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Linux (x86_64 or aarch64)
• Docker installed and running
• Rust toolchain (for building from source)
• protoc (Protocol Buffers compiler)

Ubuntu/Debian

sudo apt install protobuf-compiler build-essential pkg-config libssl-dev

Fedora

sudo dnf install protobuf-compiler gcc pkg-config openssl-devel

Installation

From crates.io

cargo install mallorca

This installs the orca binary.

From source

git clone https://github.com/mighty840/orca.git
cd orca
cargo build --release
# Binary at target/release/orca

Port binding (one-time)

Orca's proxy needs ports 80 and 443. On Linux, grant the capability after each install:

sudo setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' $(which orca)

Your First Cluster

Create a minimal configuration:

mkdir -p services/web

cat > cluster.toml << 'EOF'
[cluster]
name = "my-cluster"
domain = "example.com"
acme_email = "ops@example.com"
EOF

cat > services/web/service.toml << 'EOF'
[[service]]
name = "web"
image = "nginx:alpine"
replicas = 2
port = 80
domain = "example.com"
health = "/"
EOF

Deploy

orca server &        # Start the control plane
orca deploy          # Auto-discovers services/*/service.toml

Verify

orca status          # Service health overview
orca logs web        # Stream container logs
orca tui             # Terminal dashboard

TIP

For single-node setups, just omit the [[node]] sections in cluster.toml. Orca runs everything locally by default.

One-Click Database

orca db create postgres mydb
# Deploys postgres:16 with auto-generated password, volume, and health check
# Stores credentials as secrets, prints the connection string

Next Steps

• Configuration reference -- cluster.toml and service.toml in detail
• Services -- projects, networks, and cross-service communication
• Deployment strategies -- rolling updates, canary, and rollback