Overview

Daemons run resident processes on machines or nodes. Use Daemon for endpoint agents, host bootstrap loaders, node supervisors, local connectors, telemetry collectors, command handlers, and cluster-side services that should come up with the environment and stay running.

Daemons can run anywhere Alien has a daemon controller. They are private by default and can optionally expose named HTTP public endpoints.

Platform Mapping

Platform	Backing Runtime	Status
Local	Local process from a container image	Supported
Kubernetes / On-Prem	Kubernetes DaemonSet	Supported
AWS	One instance on every machine in an Alien Machines cluster	Supported
GCP	One instance on every machine in an Alien Machines cluster	Supported
Azure	One instance on every machine in an Alien Machines cluster	Supported

When to Use

Use Daemon when the work is machine-oriented: a connector that maintains a long-lived session, a host loader that prepares the machine, a background command executor, a local/on-prem control loop, or a helper service that should restart if it exits.

Use Worker for request-response handlers. Use Container for cloud services with ports, stateful storage, GPUs, or scaling.

Quick Start

alien.ts

import * as alien from "@alienplatform/core"

const connector = new alien.Daemon("connector")
  .code({ type: "image", image: "ghcr.io/acme/connector:2026-05-17" })
  .commandsEnabled(true)
  .environment({
    LOG_LEVEL: "info",
  })
  .permissions("execution")
  .build()

export default new alien.Stack("edge")
  .add(connector, "live")
  .platforms(["local", "kubernetes"])
  .build()

Public Endpoints

Daemons are private unless they declare a named HTTP endpoint:

const gateway = new alien.Daemon("gateway")
  .code({ type: "image", image: "ghcr.io/acme/gateway:v1" })
  .publicEndpoint("api", 8080, "http")
  .healthCheck({
    path: "/health",
    method: "GET",
    timeoutSeconds: 1,
    failureThreshold: 3,
  })
  .permissions("execution")
  .build()

Host Runtime

Trusted daemon infrastructure can request host-level runtime options. Use this for loaders or node agents that intentionally need to inspect, prepare, or supervise the host:

const loader = new alien.Daemon("host-loader")
  .code({ type: "image", image: "ghcr.io/acme/host-loader:v1" })
  .cluster("runtime")
  .runtime({
    privileged: true,
    pidNamespace: "host",
    networkMode: "host",
    mounts: [{ source: "/", target: "/host" }],
    user: "0",
  })
  .permissions("execution")
  .build()

Commands

Daemons can participate in the Commands protocol. Enable commands when the process should poll the manager for work and dispatch registered command handlers.

const executor = new alien.Daemon("executor")
  .code({ type: "image", image: "ghcr.io/acme/executor:v1" })
  .commandsEnabled(true)
  .permissions("execution")
  .build()

Configuration

Method	Required	Description
`.code(code)`	Yes	Container image or source build configuration. Current Local/Kubernetes controllers run image-based daemons.
`.environment(vars)`	No	Environment variables injected into the daemon process.
`.link(resource)`	No	Gives the daemon binding access to another resource.
`.publicEndpoint(name, port, "http")`	No	Adds a named HTTP public endpoint.
`.healthCheck(config)`	No	Configures HTTP health checks for public daemon endpoints.
`.cluster(clusterId)`	AWS/GCP/Azure	Selects the ComputeCluster that should run the daemon.
`.cpu(value)`	No	CPU requested for each daemon instance.
`.memory(size)`	No	Memory requested for each daemon instance.
`.runtime(config)`	No	Host runtime settings for trusted daemon infrastructure.
`.permissions(profile)`	Yes	Permission profile used for linked resources and cloud access.
`.commandsEnabled(boolean)`	No	Enables remote command polling. Default: `false`.

Daemons do not have triggers, direct invocation, request timeouts, replica settings, or autoscaling.

See API Reference for every builder method and Behavior & Limits for supported platforms and lifecycle behavior.