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SwarmCracker Documentation¶

Firecracker microVM orchestration with SwarmKit — no Docker, no Kubernetes required.

How Docs Are Organized¶

docs/
├── user/           # 👤 Running SwarmCracker — start here
│   ├── guides/     # Step-by-step guides
│   └── reference/  # CLI & config reference
├── dev/            # 🔧 Contributing & hacking
│   ├── reference/  # Package & API documentation
│   ├── testing/    # Test guides
│   └── architecture/ # Integration design
├── architecture/   # 🏗️ System architecture & diagrams
├── planning/       # 📋 Implementation plans & roadmap
└── research/       # 🔬 Research notes & archived docs

👤 For Users (Running SwarmCracker)¶

You want to...	Go here
Install & set up	Configuration Guide
Deploy your first service	SwarmKit Guide
Manage VMs directly	CLI Reference
Set up networking	Networking Guide
Use snapshots	Snapshots Guide
Advanced usage	Advanced Guide
Security hardening	Security Guide
Disaster recovery	Disaster Recovery Guide
Jailer quickstart	Jailer Quickstart
Operations	Operations Guide

🔧 For Developers (Contributing Code)¶

You want to...	Go here
Contribute	Contributing Guide
Understand the API	API Reference
Learn the architecture	Architecture Overview
Run tests	Testing → README
Write E2E tests	Testing → E2E Tests
Follow code style	Conventions
Security review	Dev Security

📋 Reference Docs¶

Package	Reference
Config	Config Reference
Image	Image Reference
Lifecycle	Lifecycle Reference
Network	Network Reference
Storage	Storage Reference
SwarmKit	SwarmKit Reference

Architecture¶

SwarmCracker transforms SwarmKit container tasks into Firecracker microVMs:

User → swarmcracker CLI → gRPC → swarmd-firecracker (manager)
                                        ↓
                                  SwarmKit orchestration
                                        ↓
                               swarmd-firecracker (worker)
                                        ↓
                            Executor → Firecracker microVM
                                        ↓
                              VXLAN overlay networking

📖 Full Architecture Overview
🖼️ Architecture Diagram (SVG)

Versions¶

Component	Version
SwarmCracker	v0.9.2+
Firecracker	v1.15.1
SwarmKit	v2.1.1
Go	1.26

Useful Links¶

GitHub Repo — source code, issues, PRs
Firecracker Docs — the VM engine
SwarmKit Docs — the orchestration layer
Report a Bug

Last updated: 2026-06-26 | Doc version: 4.0