kurtosis-tech Engine Manage
Manage the Kurtosis engine server lifecycle.
Status
kurtosis engine status
Shows whether the engine is running and its version.
Start
# Start with default settings
kurtosis engine start
# Start with debug images
kurtosis --debug-mode engine start
On Kubernetes, the engine runs as a pod in a kurtosis-engine-* namespace. You also need to run kurtosis gateway to access it from your local machine.
Stop
kurtosis engine stop
Restart
kurtosis engine restart
Equivalent to stop + start. Useful after changing cluster settings or upgrading.
View logs
kurtosis engine logs
Dumps engine server logs. Useful for diagnosing startup failures or API errors.
Docker vs Kubernetes
# Check which backend is active
kurtosis cluster get
# Switch to Docker
kurtosis cluster set docker
kurtosis engine restart
# Switch to Kubernetes
kurtosis cluster set kubernetes
kurtosis engine restart
kurtosis gateway # Required for k8s
Engine on Kubernetes
When running on Kubernetes:
# The engine runs in its own namespace
kubectl get ns | grep kurtosis-engine
# Check engine pod
kubectl get pods -n <engine-namespace>
# View engine logs directly
kubectl logs <engine-pod> -n <engine-namespace>
# Start the gateway (required for local CLI to reach k8s engine)
kurtosis gateway &
Common issues
| Symptom | Fix |
|---|---|
No Kurtosis engine is running |
Run kurtosis engine start |
Engine starts but engine status shows nothing (k8s) |
Start the gateway: kurtosis gateway |
| Version mismatch warning | kurtosis engine restart to match CLI version |
| Engine start hangs (k8s) | Check pods: kubectl get pods -A | grep kurtosis |
| Old engine blocking new start | kurtosis engine stop then clean namespaces |