Prerequisites

Axiom has two halves, and each needs something different.

For the quick start

The quick start runs everything on one machine, in Docker.

Tool	Why	Check
Docker	runs the kind cluster and Postgres	docker version
kind	a local Kubernetes cluster	kind version
kubectl	applies the gateway's manifests	kubectl version --client
curl	fetches the script and the manifests	curl --version

About 2 GB of free memory, and nothing else listening on 127.0.0.1:55432. Linux and macOS both work, on amd64 or arm64.

For a real installation

A Kubernetes cluster you can apply manifests to with kubectl: a namespace, a Deployment, a Service, and cluster-scoped RBAC. The gateway runs there.

A Postgres 16, 17 or 18 that you control, because Axiom has to be loaded through shared_preload_libraries and Postgres restarted. That rules out managed Postgres such as RDS, Cloud SQL and Aurora. Compatibility lists the distributions and architectures.

A network path from Postgres to the gateway. Postgres always dials out to the gateway, never the reverse, so the gateway has to be reachable from the database host: a NodePort on a routable node address, a LoadBalancer, or an ingress that passes gRPC through. Install the gateway covers the choices.

A TLS keypair for the gateway, whose names cover the address Postgres dials. The gateway has no plaintext mode.

What you do not need

• No kubeconfig or Kubernetes credentials on the Postgres host.
• No inbound connectivity to Postgres from the cluster.
• No Rust or Go toolchain, unless you build from source.