Getting started with queen

queen isn't available yet. here's what to install today so your machines are ready to become a fleet queen can observe and steer once it ships.

there's nothing to install for queen yet. run the local apiary stack on every machine today, and those machines become the fleet queen will enroll, observe, and steer once its cloud layer ships.

Can I install queen today?

No. queen is on the roadmap and not yet available. There is no package or command to run for it yet.

What should I do now to get ready?

Install the local apiary stack on every machine you plan to fleet: curl -fsSL https://get.theapiary.sh | sh. Those machines become the fleet queen will manage.

Will I lose any setup work when queen ships?

No. queen layers on top of the local stack you already have. Nothing about how honeycomb, nectar, doctor, or hive run today changes because queen arrives later.

There's nothing to install for queen yet. It's still in design. What you can do today is make sure your machines are running the local apiary stack, because that's exactly what queen will enroll and manage once its cloud layer ships.

#1. Install the local stack on every machine

queen is a layer that sits on top of the apiary you already run. If a machine doesn't have the stack installed, start there:

# macOS or Linux
curl -fsSL https://get.theapiary.sh | sh

# Windows (PowerShell)
irm https://get.theapiary.sh/install.ps1 | iex

That gives the machine honeycomb, nectar, doctor, and hive, with the hive portal reachable at 127.0.0.1:3853. Do this on every machine you expect to be part of a fleet later: your own laptop, a teammate's machine, a build server, whatever it is.

#2. Let the stack run and build up memory

Use the apiary normally. Let honeycomb capture and distill your sessions, let nectar map your codebase, and let doctor watch the daemons. None of that work is wasted or thrown away when queen arrives. queen doesn't touch memory content. It watches liveness and coordinates identity around the stack you already have running.

#3. Know what's coming, so you can plan around it

When queen ships, the rough shape of enrollment will be a short-lived join token: mint one on a trusted machine, redeem it on a new one, and the new machine shows up on a fleet dashboard after its first heartbeat. No browser on the server, no credential pasted into a config file, no shared key passed around. If you're planning a rollout across a team, this is the model to plan for.

#4. Watch for the release

queen's cloud layer isn't live yet. The local stack you install today doesn't need any changes ahead of time. When queen is ready, enrollment attaches to machines that are already running the apiary, so there's no separate migration to do.

#What next

Read how queen works for the full picture: presence, identity, signed commands, and the custody model.
Check the queen FAQ for quick answers.
Not running the local stack yet? Start with the apiary getting started guide.

#Common questions

Can I install queen today? No. queen is on the roadmap and not yet available. There is no package or command to run for it yet.

What should I do now to get ready? Install the local apiary stack on every machine you plan to fleet: curl -fsSL https://get.theapiary.sh | sh. Those machines become the fleet queen will manage.

Will I lose any setup work when queen ships? No. queen layers on top of the local stack you already have. Nothing about how honeycomb, nectar, doctor, or hive run today changes because queen arrives later.