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Provisioning Infrastructure (cloud:create)

cloud:create provisions real infrastructure — a droplet or a managed Kubernetes cluster — instead of assuming you already have one. It's the step that now comes before cloud:init / cloud:init:doks in the deployment journey: OpenTofu creates the box or the cluster, then LaraKube CLI hands off to the same pipeline a manually-created server would go through.

See Provisioning with OpenTofu & Terraform for how this works under the hood (the stack model, state, encryption). This page is the walkthrough.

Not required

You can still bring your own droplet or cluster (created by hand, or via doctl) and run cloud:init / cloud:init:doks directly against it — see the DOKS quickstart for that path. cloud:create is the automated alternative.

Prerequisites​

  • A DigitalOcean account with billing enabled, and an API token (read + write) — cloud:create prompts for and saves this on first use.
  • OpenTofu or Terraform on your PATH — cloud:create offers to install OpenTofu for you if neither is found.
  • An SSH key pair (for the VPS path).

Provision a VPS​

larakube cloud:create --provider=do --vps

Walks through:

  1. Stack name, region, droplet size — sensible defaults (s-1vcpu-1gb, nyc1) you can override.
  2. SSH key — path to your private key; the matching public key is uploaded (or reused if DigitalOcean already has it).
  3. Admin CIDR (optional) — restrict SSH and the k3s API (6443) to your IP instead of leaving them open.
  4. Apply — a final confirmation before anything is created (real resources, real cost).

Once the droplet exists, LaraKube CLI waits for SSH to come up, then runs the same install-and-harden pipeline as cloud:init: K3s, UFW/fail2ban, key-only SSH, Traefik. If you ran this from inside a project (and passed/answered an environment), that environment is bound to the new stack automatically — no separate cloud:configure:base step needed.

Provision a managed cluster (DOKS)​

larakube cloud:create --provider=do --managed

Prompts for stack name, region, node size, node count, and (optionally) a Kubernetes version prefix. After tofu apply, LaraKube CLI merges the cluster's kubeconfig locally and runs cloud:init:doks for you — Traefik + Let's Encrypt install, LoadBalancer IP included. Same binding behavior as the VPS path if an environment is attached.

Node count drives the strategy

A single node pool provisions the single-node strategy; 2+ nodes provisions multi-node-ha (stateless app pods — see Going multi-node).

Attaching an environment to an existing stack​

If a stack of the requested kind (vps or doks) is already registered, cloud:create asks up front whether to provision a new one or attach the current environment to an existing one:

larakube cloud:create staging
# Create a NEW vps stack? (No = attach this env to an existing one)

Attaching does no provisioning — it just records the stack's IP/context on the environment (namespace-isolated from anything else already deployed there) and registers the binding. This is how two environments, or two different projects, end up co-tenant on one VPS or cluster. See Two Apps, One Server and Two Environments, One Server.

Listing and destroying stacks​

larakube cloud:stacks

Lists every stack registered on this machine — name, kind, region, IP/context, and which app/environment pairs are bound to it.

larakube cloud:destroy [stack]

Runs tofu destroy against the chosen stack and removes it from the registry. It warns if any environments are still bound (best-effort — only bindings recorded on this machine show up), requires a typed confirmation, and offers to remove the local kube-context afterward. This is destructive and permanent — it deletes the droplet or cluster and everything on it.

cloud:destroy is distinct from cloud:nuke, which only wipes an app's namespace/resources and leaves the underlying infrastructure running.

Next steps​

Once a stack exists and an environment is bound to it, the rest of the journey is unchanged:

larakube cloud:configure:registry <environment>   # container registry
larakube cloud:configure:gha <environment>         # CI secrets
larakube cloud:deploy <environment>