[Proposal setup] Proposal title
Please provide your proposal title
Cardano Kubernetes Operator
[Proposal Summary] Budget Information
Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA
83664
[Proposal Summary] Time
Please specify how many months you expect your project to last
6
[Proposal Summary] Translation Information
Please indicate if your proposal has been auto-translated
No
Original Language
en
[Proposal Summary] Problem Statement
What is the problem you want to solve?
Lack of an efficient, standardized, and automated solution to deploy and manage Cardano nodes on Kubernetes.
[Proposal Summary] Supporting Documentation
Supporting links
[Proposal Summary] Project Dependencies
Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?
Yes
Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'
We depend on Kubernetes, Helm, and cloud infrastructure on AWS for orchestration. We also rely on upstream repository: Cardano Node, Cardano DB-Sync, Ogmios, and Submit API.
[Proposal Summary] Project Open Source
Will your project's outputs be fully open source?
Yes
License and Additional Information
All source code will be published under an MIT license on GitHub.
[Theme Selection] Theme
Please choose the most relevant theme and tag related to the outcomes of your proposal
Infrastructure
[Campaign Category] Category Questions
Mention your open source license and describe your open source license rationale.
MIT License
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
How do you make sure your source code is accessible to the public from project start, and people are informed?
We will publish our source code from the beginning of the project in a public GitHub repository. All commits will follow version control best practices with regular updates to ensure transparency and quality. We will also provide clear communication about progress through commit messages, release notes, and project documentation, so the community can follow and contribute.
Link project github: https://github.com/Tech-Expansion/tex-node-operator
How will you provide high quality documentation?
We will provide comprehensive documentation including:
- Provide clear README, setup guides.
- Use step-by-step instructions with visuals and real examples.
- Apply Markdown for consistent, easy-to-update documentation.
[Your Project and Solution] Solution
Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem
Problem We're Solving
As a team with experience deploying many Cardano nodes, we have identified a common issue: running Cardano nodes still requires a lot of manual setup and operations.
Why a Kubernetes?
Although the documentation is fairly complete, running a full node, relay, or db-sync in a production environment remains challenging because:
- Configuring files, adding parameters, and writing update scripts take time and are prone to human errors.
- Each upgrade requires retesting everything from scratch.
- Running on Kubernetes or cloud has almost no official tooling support.
- Newcomers or those without DevOps knowledge are often overwhelmed.
Solution Details
A Kubernetes Operator is an application-specific controller that simplifies how applications are packaged, deployed, and managed on Kubernetes clusters. Instead of manually configuring low-level details, developers can define high-level, custom resources that describe the desired state of the application. Kubernetes then automatically reconciles this state, ensuring consistency, reliability, and automation.
Today, operators exist for many well-known systems such as Redis, Kafka, Elasticsearch, and PostgreSQL, which are widely adopted in cloud-native environments. This proposal extends the same approach to Cardano by developing Operators for its core components, including:
- Cardano Node
- Cardano DB-Sync
- Ogmios
- Submit API
Each operator will encapsulate best practices for deploying and managing its workload type (stateful or stateless). Together, they will address the most critical operational challenges in running Cardano infrastructure:
- Basic installation, provisioning, and configuration: Deploy components declaratively with minimal manual steps.
- Version upgrades (minor/patch): Seamlessly roll out updates while minimizing downtime.
- Storage backup and restore: Built-in mechanisms to safeguard data integrity for DB-Sync and other stateful components.
- Monitoring and alerts: Native integration with Kubernetes monitoring stacks (Prometheus, Grafana) for observability and reliability.
By creating a canonical and standardized way of deploying Cardano infrastructure on Kubernetes clusters, this project will:
- Lower the barrier of entry for SPOs, developers, and enterprises.
- Reduce the risk of misconfiguration and manual operational errors.
- Enable smooth integration into CI/CD pipelines and cloud platforms.
- Make Cardano infrastructure as easy to manage as any other modern cloud-native service.
In short, this solution brings Cardano operations in line with today’s infrastructure standards, making it easier, faster, and safer for the community to run and scale Cardano services.
[Your Project and Solution] Impact
Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community
Value to the Cardano community
- We aim to enable 100–200 users (individuals and enterprises) to deploy Cardano Nodes more easily. This estimate is based on adoption of the Postgres Operator and Redis Operator on GitHub, both of which exceeded 500+ stars and 200+ forks within the first year of release. Given Cardano’s smaller but highly active SPO community (currently ~3,000 active pools), we conservatively target 100–200 users.
- We expect to reduce operational costs by 30–40%. This figure is supported by cloud-native case studies (AWS, CNCF) showing that Kubernetes automation reduces manual DevOps workload by at least one-third, especially in repetitive lifecycle tasks like deployment, scaling, and upgrades.
- We target 10–20 new stake pools. This is extrapolated from past community growth when new infrastructure tools (e.g., CNCLI, gLiveView) were introduced, which resulted in dozens of SPOs successfully setting up nodes more efficiently.
How we will measure the impact
- Installations/Deployments: At least 100 GitHub downloads/clones in the first 6 months. This benchmark is taken from adoption rates of other Cardano open-source repos such as db-sync and Ogmios, which both crossed several hundred clones in early months.
- Community Contributions: At least 10 GitHub issues and 20 pull requests. These numbers are aligned with early-stage Cardano projects like Cardano-wallet, which saw dozens of issues and community PRs in its first year.
- User Feedback: Collect 100 responses vie survey (Google Forms, and Twitter). This is modeled after previous Catalyst projects (e.g., Plutus Pioneer Program feedback rounds) which gathered 100+ user evaluations.
- Technical Metrics: Target 150 successfully running nodes using the Operator. This is reasonable when compared with the adoption of Cardano SPO deployment scripts that helped hundreds of pools go live after release.
How we will share outputs and opportunities
- Release 100% of the source code and documentation publicly on GitHub, with milestone-based updates.
- Publish at lease 5 technical blog posts to guide and onboard users.
- We will also publish a public impact report with statistics, case studies, and feedback on Cardano Forum and Discord, ensuring transparency similar to IOG’s progress updates.
[Your Project and Solution] Capabilities & Feasibility
What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?
Proven Capability
TEX Labs has a strong track record in the Cardano ecosystem, achieving awards in scientific research competitions, hackathons, and organizing workshops/community events. These activities have built trust and provided direct insights into user needs.
Team Competence
The core team consists of three key members with projects funded in Funds 11, 12, and 13. Each member brings over 5 years of software development experience, more than 2 years of experience in developing and operating Cardano Blockchain infrastructure, and over 4 years in full-stack software development (microservices, clean architecture, database optimization, caching, message brokers). The team is proficient in Haskell/Plutus, Rust, Aiken, and modern frontend/backend technologies. They have successfully delivered multiple Cardano projects implementing CIP-25, CIP-30, and CIP-68, ensuring high reliability in real-world environments.
Feasibility Validation
We build for the real needs of the community. The roadmap begins with an MVP focused on critical “user jobs,” followed by rapid iterations with public releases and open demos. Success metrics are clearly tracked (active users, processed transactions, latency, error rates) and refined based on feedback.
Transparency and accountability
We adopt an open-source development approach from the start:
- Public repository (https://github.com/Tech-Expansion/tex-node-operator)) with transparent issues/roadmap
- Regular progress updates (bi-weekly or monthly) with direct changelogs
- Milestone-based delivery with verifiable outputs before moving to the next phase
- Transparent financial reports with spending tied to each milestone
With a community-driven design, disciplined engineering, and transparent operations, TEX Labs is ready to deliver the project with reliability and accountability.
[Milestones] Project Milestones
Milestone Title
Research, analysis and architecture design
Milestone Outputs
- Plan of project management.
- Diagram of system architecture.
- Detailed analysis document of system components.
- Environment setup and configuration management document.
- GitHub repository.
Acceptance Criteria
- 01 Project plan must include: project objectives, scope, timeline, resources, budget, stakeholders, task assignment plan, risk analysis, monitoring and evaluation plan.
- 01 Architecture diagram must illustrate core K8S components: cluster, control plane, and worker nodes.
- 01 Document diagram must describe system structure and workflow, including components, relationships, interactions, and external integrations.
- 01 Document setup environment must specify: minimum hardware requirements, external dependencies, and installation steps.
- GitHub repository must be updated regularly with at least 10 commits per week.
Evidence of Completion
- Project plan (PDF link)
- Architecture diagram (Google Drive folder link or GitHub link)
- System analysis document (PDF link or .md in GitHub)
- Environment setup documentation (PDF link or .md in GitHub)
- GitHub repository link
Delivery Month
1
Cost
20538
Progress
20 %
Milestone Title
Build core Cardano node operator
Milestone Outputs
- Deployment process report for 4 modules: Node, DB-Sync, Ogmios, Submit API
- Detailed CRD (CustomResourceDefinition) for each module: Node, DB-Sync, Ogmios, Submit API
- Configuration explanation document
- Installation guide
Acceptance Criteria
- Detailed CRDs for Node, DB-Sync, Ogmios, Submit API, each with at least 1 complete example CRD.
- 01 Documentation must clearly explain configs: resource limits, PVC for blockchain data, topology config for node, DB-Sync connection string.
- Users must be able to successfully deploy a Cardano Node + DB-Sync + Ogmios + Submit API stack on Kubernetes following the guide.
- 01 User guide must include at least 3 workflows: initializing a new node, updating configs, scaling out DB-Sync with multiple replicas.
Evidence of Completion
- Deployment process report (PDF link)
- Detailed CRD definitions (.md in GitHub)
- Configuration explanation document (PDF link)
- Installation guide (.md in GitHub)
Delivery Month
2
Cost
25238
Progress
50 %
Milestone Title
Security, monitoring and scaling operations
Milestone Outputs
- Custom Resource Definition for Policy and RBAC
- Custom Resource Definition for monitoring and alerting
- Custom Resource Definition for scaling (Auto-scaling, Load balancing)
- Security and monitoring configuration document
Acceptance Criteria
- Completed RBAC, network policy, and secret management with benchmark proof: only valid pods allowed
- Autoscaling (HPA/VPA) defined for Node, DB-Sync, Ogmios with KPI: scale-out <30s when CPU >70% or DB lag >50 blocks.
- Grafana dashboard showing at least 5 metrics (block height, mempool size, DB sync lag, API latency), updated in <5s real-time.
- Prometheus alert rules sending alerts to Slack/Email within <1 min when: node disconnects, DB-Sync lag >100 blocks, or API error rate >5%.
Evidence of Completion
- Security design documentation (PDF link)
- Scaling guide (.md in GitHub)
- Grafana monitoring dashboard (JSON export link)
- Prometheus alerting rules (.yaml link)
Delivery Month
2
Cost
25238
Progress
80 %
Milestone Title
Open-source launch, documentation and marketing
Milestone Outputs
- Deployment, operation, upgrade, recovery guide.
- Operator v1.0 public release.
- Community feedback.
- Bug report and improvement proposals.
- Closing milestone video.
- Final milestone report.
Acceptance Criteria
- Deployment Guide, User Guide publicly released on GitHub, covering deployment, operation, upgrade, recovery, minimum 10 pages.
- v1.0 release on GitHub including CRD, manifest, Helm chart, CI/CD pipeline; > 30 clones/forks.
- At least 100 detailed community feedback submissions (via GitHub Issues, Google Form, Telegram).
- At least 10 bugs/issues from community reported and fixed, with commits/PRs as evidence.
- Closing milestone video uploaded to YouTube.
- Final project report published.
Evidence of Completion
- Deployment/operation/upgrade/recovery guide (.md in GitHub)
- Operator v1.0 public release (GitHub link)
- Community feedback (Google Sheet or PDF link)
- Bug and improvement report (Google Sheet or PDF link)
- Closing milestone video (YouTube link)
- Final project report (PDF link)
Delivery Month
1
Cost
12650
Progress
100 %
[Final Pitch] Budget & Costs
Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources
Milestone 1: Architecture & Technical Design (4 weeks)
- Tasks: Research updated architecture, design K8s architecture, feature specification and team onboarding
- Resources:
- 01 Project Manager: 100 hrs × $30/hr = $3,000
- 01 Solution Architect: 160 hrs × $30/hr = $4,800
- 01 Business Analyst: 160hrs × $18/hr = $2,880
- 01 Quality Assurance: 180hrs × $15/hr = $2,750
- Cloud infrastructure/services for 6 months: 6 × $500/month = 3,000$
- Subtotal: $16,430 ~ 20,538 ADA
Milestone 2: Cardano Node Operator Development (8 weeks)
- Tasks: Develop a Kubernetes Operator for the Cardano Node, integrate Helm charts and manage the lifecycle.
- Resources:
- 01 Project Manager: 200 hrs × $30/hr = $6,000
- 01 DevOps Engineer: 260 hrs × $22/hr = $5,720
- 01 Software Engineer/Blockchain Developer: 260 hrs × $22/hr = $5,720
- 01 Quality Assurance: 180hrs × $15/hr = $2,750
- Subtotal: $20,190 ~ 25,238 ADA
Milestone 3: Security, monitoring and scaling operations (8 weeks)
- Tasks: Implement security, monitoring, and scaling operations for the Cardano Node, including monitoring, alerting, automatic scaling, and security testing
- Resources:
- 01 Project Manager: 200 hrs × $30/hr = $6,000
- 01 DevOps Engineer: 260 hrs × $22/hr = $5,720
- 01 Software Engineer/Blockchain Developer: 260 hrs × $22/hr = $5,720
- 01 Quality Assurance: 180hrs × $15/hr = $2,750
- Subtotal: $20,190 ~ 25,238 ADA
Milestone 4: Open-source launch, documentation and marketing (4 weeks)
- Tasks: Publish code under MIT license, create deployment and contribution guides, marketing campaign (intro video, blog post, social media, landing page)
- Resources:
- 01 Project Manager: 100hrs × $30/hr = $3,000
- 01 Marketing Specialist: 120hrs × $15/hr = $1,800
- 01 Technical Writer: 120hrs × $15/hr = $1,800
- 01 Software Engineer: 80hrs × $22/hr = $1,760
- 01 DevOps Engineer: 80 hrs × $22/hr = $1,760
- Subtotal: $10,120 ~ 12,650 ADA
Total Budget: $66,930 = 83,664 ADA
Exchange rate: 1 ADA = $0.80
[Final Pitch] Value for Money
How does the cost of the project represent value for the Cardano ecosystem?
This project delivers high value for money by building a robust, production-grade Kubernetes Operator system for Cardano, enabling developers, stake pool operators, and enterprises to deploy and manage Cardano infrastructure more efficiently, securely, and at scale.
Our budget of $66,930 (~83,664 ADA) is optimized around four clear milestones, involving senior-level engineers at a competitive hourly rate ($30/hour). We’ve kept non-engineering costs minimal and focused spending on infrastructure automation, open-source deliverables, and end-user usability.
Key value points:
- Open Source Impact: All code, documentation, and deployment scripts will be released under open source licenses, allowing the entire ecosystem to benefit.
- Reusable Architecture: The Kubernetes operators we build will be modular and reusable for various Cardano services (e.g., relay nodes, block producers, db-sync, Oura).
- Time Savings for Devs: By abstracting away low-level infrastructure configuration, the project reduces setup time from days to minutes for new teams.
- Sustainable Cost Structure: The monthly infrastructure cost during development (~$3,000) is representative of real-world deployment needs, helping us validate cost-performance tradeoffs.
By investing in this foundational infrastructure, the Cardano ecosystem gains long-term technical leverage reducing entry barriers, increasing deployment reliability, and accelerating innovation.
[Required Acknowledgements] Consent & Confirmation
Terms and Conditions:
Yes