Deploy Busbar

Busbar is a single static binary with no runtime dependencies. Find your row, run the command, follow the guide.

Run it

Substrate	Get it	Best for	Guide
Homebrew	brew install GetBusbar/busbar/busbar	macOS & Linux dev machines	Download
One-line install	curl -fsSL https://getbusbar.com/install.sh | sh	quick try, any Unix	Download
Binary + systemd	release binaries	VMs, bare metal, config-mgmt fleets	Binary
Docker	docker pull getbusbar/busbar	a single host, local, or Compose	Docker
Docker Compose	compose.yaml	a host with a writable governance volume	Docker
Kubernetes (Helm)	helm repo add busbar https://getbusbar.github.io/helm-charts	clusters — the official chart renders everything	Kubernetes (Helm)

Manage it as code

Point any of these at a running gateway’s admin API to drive virtual keys, hooks, and config:

Tool	Get it	Guide
Terraform	source = "getbusbar/busbar"	Terraform
Pulumi	GetBusbar/pulumi-busbar (Python / TS / Go)	Terraform § Pulumi
Crossplane	GetBusbar/provider-busbar (K8s CRDs)	Terraform § Crossplane
SDKs	pip install busbar-admin · npm i @busbar/busbar-admin · go get …/busbar-go	SDKs
busbar-admin (CLI)	cargo install --git https://github.com/GetBusbar/busbar-admin	SDKs § CLI
CI validation	uses: GetBusbar/validate-action@v1	validate-action

What every path shares

However you run it, the model is the same:

• Two config files. config.yaml (the deploy config) and providers.yaml (the provider catalog — ships inside the Docker image; fetched by the installer for the bare binary). Default locations /etc/busbar/config.yaml and /etc/busbar/providers.yaml, overridable via BUSBAR_CONFIG / BUSBAR_PROVIDERS.
• Secrets stay in the environment. Provider API keys, client tokens, and the admin token are read from environment variables (referenced as ${VAR} in config.yaml), never written into the config files. An unset referenced variable is a loud startup failure.
• Two listeners. The public data plane (:8080) serves LLM traffic; the admin plane always runs on its own listener (:8081, loopback by default) and refuses to boot on a network-exposed bind without mTLS. See Operations and the Admin API.
• Health checks. GET /healthz on the data port (and the admin port) — unauthenticated, side-effect-free, ideal for a load balancer or orchestrator probe.
• Validate before you reload. busbar --validate parses and validates both files with no server, no network, and no secrets — exit 0 = safe to deploy. Run it in CI and before every reload.