Installation¶

This guide covers installing the Language Operator on your Kubernetes cluster.

Requirements¶

Hardware¶

Minimum recommended node capacity:

2 CPU cores (4+ for running agents)
4Gi RAM (8Gi+ for running agents)
15Gi persistent storage (10Gi workspace per agent)

Cluster¶

Kubernetes 1.26+
kubectl and Helm 3.8+
cert-manager v1.12+ — required for webhook TLS
NetworkPolicy-capable CNI — Cilium, Calico, Weave, or Antrea
Persistent storage — for agent workspace PVCs

See the Kubernetes guide for instructions on installing and verifying these prerequisites.

Install via Helm¶

Language Operator ships as two separate Helm charts:

Chart	Purpose
`language-operator/language-operator`	Operator, CRDs, RBAC, webhooks
`language-operator/language-operator-runtimes`	Bundled `LanguageAgentRuntime` presets (openclaw, opencode, claude-code)

Install the operator chart first, then the runtimes chart.

1. Add the Helm Repository¶

helm repo add language-operator \
  https://language-operator.github.io/language-operator

helm repo update

2. Install the Operator¶

Install into the language-operator namespace, substituting the values for your cluster:

helm install language-operator \
  language-operator/language-operator \
  --create-namespace \
  --namespace language-operator \
  --set config.agents.ingressClassName=traefik \
  --set config.agents.storageClassName=local-path \
  --set config.gateway.ingressClassName=traefik \
  --set config.tls.certificateIssuerName=letsencrypt-production \
  --set config.tls.certificateIssuerKind=ClusterIssuer

Values vary by cluster

Replace traefik with your ingress class (e.g. nginx, alb), local-path with your StorageClass, and the TLS issuer with the name of your cert-manager ClusterIssuer or Issuer. All of these can also be set in a values file with helm install -f values.yaml.

See the complete values.yaml for all available configuration options.

3. Install the Runtimes¶

The language-operator-runtimes chart installs the bundled LanguageAgentRuntime presets (openclaw, opencode, and claude-code). These are cluster-scoped resources — install once and reference from any namespace.

helm install language-operator-runtimes \
  language-operator/language-operator-runtimes \
  --namespace language-operator

Operator must be installed first

The runtimes chart requires the CRDs installed by the operator chart. Always install language-operator before language-operator-runtimes.

You can selectively disable runtimes you don't need:

helm install language-operator-runtimes \
  language-operator/language-operator-runtimes \
  --namespace language-operator \
  --set runtimes.claudeCode.enabled=false

4. Verify Installation¶

Check that the operator pod is running:

kubectl get pods -n language-operator

Expected output:

NAME                                  READY   STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE
language-operator-5f7b8d9c4d-x8z2q    1/1     Running   0          30s

Check CRDs are installed:

kubectl get crds | grep langop.io

Expected output:

languageagentruntimes.langop.io
languageagents.langop.io
languageclusters.langop.io
languagemodels.langop.io
languagepersonas.langop.io
languagetools.langop.io

Check runtimes are installed:

kubectl get languageagentruntimes

Expected output:

NAME          AGE
claude-code   30s
openclaw      30s
opencode      30s

Upgrade¶

Upgrade the operator to the latest version:

helm repo update
helm upgrade language-operator language-operator/language-operator \
  --namespace language-operator

Upgrade runtimes separately:

helm upgrade language-operator-runtimes language-operator/language-operator-runtimes \
  --namespace language-operator

CRD schema changes

Helm does not update CRDs automatically on helm upgrade. When upgrading to a version that includes CRD changes, apply the updated CRDs first:

kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/language-operator/language-operator/main/charts/language-operator/templates/crds/langop.io_languageagents.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/language-operator/language-operator/main/charts/language-operator/templates/crds/langop.io_languageagentruntimes.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/language-operator/language-operator/main/charts/language-operator/templates/crds/langop.io_languageclusters.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/language-operator/language-operator/main/charts/language-operator/templates/crds/langop.io_languagemodels.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/language-operator/language-operator/main/charts/language-operator/templates/crds/langop.io_languagepersonas.yaml
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/language-operator/language-operator/main/charts/language-operator/templates/crds/langop.io_languagetools.yaml

Check the release notes before upgrading to see if CRD changes are included.

Uninstall¶

Remove the runtimes chart first, then the operator:

helm uninstall language-operator-runtimes --namespace language-operator
helm uninstall language-operator --namespace language-operator

Data Loss

Uninstalling will delete all LanguageAgent, LanguageModel, and related resources. Back up any important configurations before uninstalling.