Deploy CAIPE with Helm

Use the Helm chart to run CAIPE on any Kubernetes cluster — EKS, GKE, AKS, KinD, or self-managed.

:::tip Need a cluster first? If you don't have a Kubernetes cluster yet, see Cluster Setup for KinD (local, no cloud account needed) and AWS EKS instructions. Return here once kubectl get nodes shows nodes in Ready state. :::

Prerequisites

Requirement	Notes
Kubernetes 1.28+	Set one up if needed
`kubectl`	Configured against your cluster
Helm 3	`helm version` to verify
LLM credentials	OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, or AWS Bedrock

Configure Secrets

Create the namespace and secrets before running the Helm install. The commands below are safe to repeat.

kubectl create namespace ai-platform-engineering \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -

LLM credentials

Pick the provider you're using:

OpenAI

kubectl create secret generic llm-secret \
  -n ai-platform-engineering \
  --from-literal=LLM_PROVIDER=openai \
  --from-literal=OPENAI_API_KEY=<token> \
  --from-literal=OPENAI_MODEL_NAME=gpt-4o \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -

Azure OpenAI

kubectl create secret generic llm-secret \
  -n ai-platform-engineering \
  --from-literal=LLM_PROVIDER=azure-openai \
  --from-literal=AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY=<token> \
  --from-literal=AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT=https://example.openai.azure.com \
  --from-literal=AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION=2025-03-01-preview \
  --from-literal=AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT=gpt-4o \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -

AWS Bedrock

kubectl create secret generic llm-secret \
  -n ai-platform-engineering \
  --from-literal=LLM_PROVIDER=aws-bedrock \
  --from-literal=AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<access-key> \
  --from-literal=AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<secret-key> \
  --from-literal=AWS_REGION=us-east-1 \
  --from-literal=AWS_BEDROCK_MODEL_ID=us.amazon.nova-pro-v1:0 \
  --from-literal=AWS_BEDROCK_PROVIDER=amazon \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -

MCP server credentials

Create only the secrets for MCP servers you plan to enable:

kubectl create secret generic github-secret \
  -n ai-platform-engineering \
  --from-literal=GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=<token> \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -

kubectl create secret generic argocd-secret \
  -n ai-platform-engineering \
  --from-literal=ARGOCD_TOKEN=<token> \
  --from-literal=ARGOCD_API_URL=https://argocd.example.com \
  --from-literal=ARGOCD_VERIFY_SSL=true \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -

Dynamic Agents and the CAIPE UI both need MongoDB-compatible persistence. For a local evaluation, enable the bundled MongoDB and provide its connection URI through a shared Secret. Use a managed MongoDB or DocumentDB connection for production instead of the placeholder credentials shown here.

kubectl create secret generic caipe-runtime-secret \
  -n ai-platform-engineering \
  --from-literal=MONGODB_URI='mongodb://admin:changeme@ai-platform-engineering-mongodb:27017/caipe?authSource=admin' \
  --dry-run=client -o yaml | kubectl apply -f -

Install from OCI

The chart is published as an OCI artifact in the caipe-io registry. Set the release version you want to install, then verify that it is available:

export CAIPE_CHART=oci://ghcr.io/caipe-io/charts/ai-platform-engineering
export CAIPE_VERSION=1.1.0  # replace with the release you want to install

helm show chart "${CAIPE_CHART}" --version "${CAIPE_VERSION}"

Minimal install — UI, Dynamic Agents, bundled MongoDB, and a starter MCP server:

helm upgrade --install ai-platform-engineering "${CAIPE_CHART}" \
  --version "${CAIPE_VERSION}" \
  --namespace ai-platform-engineering \
  --create-namespace \
  --set-string tags.caipe-ui=true \
  --set-string tags.dynamic-agents=true \
  --set-string tags.mcp-netutils=true \
  --set-string caipe-ui.mongodb.enabled=true \
  --set-string caipe-ui.config.DYNAMIC_AGENTS_ENABLED=true \
  --set-string caipe-ui.existingSecret=caipe-runtime-secret \
  --set-string dynamic-agents.existingSecret=caipe-runtime-secret \
  --set-string dynamic-agents.llmSecret=llm-secret

MongoDB remains the default. For the opt-in DocumentDB values and required shared MONGODB_URI Secret, see Persistence.

With GitHub, ArgoCD, and RAG:

helm upgrade --install ai-platform-engineering "${CAIPE_CHART}" \
  --version "${CAIPE_VERSION}" \
  --namespace ai-platform-engineering \
  --create-namespace \
  --set-string tags.caipe-ui=true \
  --set-string tags.dynamic-agents=true \
  --set-string tags.mcp-github=true \
  --set-string tags.mcp-argocd=true \
  --set-string tags.rag-stack=true \
  --set-string caipe-ui.mongodb.enabled=true \
  --set-string caipe-ui.config.DYNAMIC_AGENTS_ENABLED=true \
  --set-string caipe-ui.existingSecret=caipe-runtime-secret \
  --set-string dynamic-agents.existingSecret=caipe-runtime-secret \
  --set-string dynamic-agents.llmSecret=llm-secret \
  --set-string mcp-github.agentSecrets.secretName=github-secret \
  --set-string mcp-argocd.agentSecrets.secretName=argocd-secret

Values file

tags:
  caipe-ui: true
  dynamic-agents: true
  mcp-github: true
  mcp-argocd: true
  rag-stack: true

global:
  llmSecrets:
    secretName: llm-secret

caipe-ui:
  existingSecret: caipe-runtime-secret
  mongodb:
    enabled: true
  config:
    DYNAMIC_AGENTS_ENABLED: "true"
  # Optional: pre-seed model choices in the UI
  appConfig:
    models:
      - model_id: gpt-4o
        name: GPT-4o
        provider: openai
        enabled: true

dynamic-agents:
  existingSecret: caipe-runtime-secret
  llmSecret: llm-secret

mcp-github:
  agentSecrets:
    secretName: github-secret

mcp-argocd:
  agentSecrets:
    secretName: argocd-secret

helm upgrade --install ai-platform-engineering "${CAIPE_CHART}" \
  --version "${CAIPE_VERSION}" \
  --namespace ai-platform-engineering \
  --create-namespace \
  --values values.yaml

Chart Components

Component	Tag	Purpose
CAIPE UI	`tags.caipe-ui=true`	Web UI and BFF API
Dynamic Agents	`tags.dynamic-agents=true`	Chat, Agent Builder, workflows, checkpointed state
MCP servers	`tags.mcp-<name>=true`	Tool integrations exposed to agents
RAG stack	`tags.rag-stack=true`	Knowledge base and embeddings
Slack bot	`tags.slack-bot=true`	Slack integration
Webex bot	`tags.webex-bot=true`	Webex integration

Available MCP tags: mcp-argocd, mcp-aws, mcp-backstage, mcp-confluence, mcp-github, mcp-gitlab, mcp-jira, mcp-komodor, mcp-pagerduty, mcp-slack, mcp-splunk, mcp-victorops, mcp-webex, mcp-netutils.

Verify

helm list -n ai-platform-engineering
kubectl get pods -n ai-platform-engineering
kubectl logs -n ai-platform-engineering -l app.kubernetes.io/name=dynamic-agents

Troubleshooting

Pods not starting: kubectl describe pod <pod> -n ai-platform-engineering
Check rendered manifests: helm template ai-platform-engineering charts/ai-platform-engineering --values values.yaml
Ensure tags.dynamic-agents=true is set when Dynamic Agents should run
MCP tag names use mcp-* prefix (e.g. tags.mcp-github=true)

Prerequisites​

Configure Secrets​

LLM credentials​

MCP server credentials​

Install from OCI​

Values file​

Chart Components​

Verify​

Troubleshooting​