Imported from jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace (skills/.curated/castai-install-auth/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add jeremylongshore/tons-of-skills-marketplace --skill castai-install-auth. Copyright stays with the author (MIT).

CAST AI Install & Auth

Overview

Connect a Kubernetes cluster (EKS, GKE, AKS, or KOPS) to CAST AI for cost optimization, autoscaling, and security scanning. Covers API key generation, Helm chart installation of the CAST AI agent, and Terraform provider setup.

Prerequisites

• A running Kubernetes cluster (EKS, GKE, AKS, or KOPS)
• kubectl configured with cluster admin access
• helm v3 installed
• A CAST AI account at https://console.cast.ai

Instructions

Step 1: Generate an API Key

Log in to https://console.cast.ai and navigate to API > API Access Keys. Create a Full Access key for Terraform-managed clusters, or Read-Only for monitoring-only.

export CASTAI_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

# Verify the key works
curl -s -H "X-API-Key: ${CASTAI_API_KEY}" \
  https://api.cast.ai/v1/kubernetes/external-clusters | jq '.items | length'

Step 2: Install the CAST AI Agent via Helm

# Add the CAST AI Helm repository
helm repo add castai-helm https://castai.github.io/helm-charts
helm repo update

# Install the read-only monitoring agent (Phase 1)
helm upgrade --install castai-agent castai-helm/castai-agent \
  -n castai-agent --create-namespace \
  --set apiKey="${CASTAI_API_KEY}" \
  --set provider="eks"  # eks | gke | aks

kubectl get pods -n castai-agent

Step 3: Enable Full Automation (Phase 2)

export CASTAI_CLUSTER_ID="your-cluster-id"

# Cluster controller -- manages node lifecycle
helm upgrade --install cluster-controller castai-helm/castai-cluster-controller \
  -n castai-agent \
  --set castai.apiKey="${CASTAI_API_KEY}" \
  --set castai.clusterID="${CASTAI_CLUSTER_ID}"

# Evictor -- consolidates underutilized nodes
helm upgrade --install castai-evictor castai-helm/castai-evictor \
  -n castai-agent \
  --set castai.apiKey="${CASTAI_API_KEY}" \
  --set castai.clusterID="${CASTAI_CLUSTER_ID}"

# Spot handler -- graceful spot instance interruption
helm upgrade --install castai-spot-handler castai-helm/castai-spot-handler \
  -n castai-agent \
  --set castai.provider="eks" \
  --set castai.clusterID="${CASTAI_CLUSTER_ID}"

Step 4: Terraform Provider (Alternative)

terraform {
  required_providers {
    castai = {
      source  = "castai/castai"
      version = "~> 7.0"
    }
  }
}

provider "castai" {
  api_token = var.castai_api_token
}

variable "castai_api_token" {
  type      = string
  sensitive = true
}

resource "castai_eks_cluster" "this" {
  account_id = data.aws_caller_identity.current.account_id
  region     = var.aws_region
  name       = var.cluster_name
}

Step 5: Verify Connection

curl -s -H "X-API-Key: ${CASTAI_API_KEY}" \
  "https://api.cast.ai/v1/kubernetes/external-clusters/${CASTAI_CLUSTER_ID}" \
  | jq '{name: .name, status: .status, agentStatus: .agentStatus}'
# => { "name": "my-cluster", "status": "ready", "agentStatus": "online" }

Error Handling

Output

Record the connected cluster ID, environment, installation method, secret-store reference, least-privilege key owner, agent health, and verification time. Do not place the API key, Terraform state, Helm values containing secrets, or raw provider output in tickets, repositories, or chat transcripts.

Examples

For a staging EKS cluster, provision the key through the approved secret store, install the agent with the secret reference, and verify an online agent using the read-only status request. If the agent cannot authenticate, remove the failed secret reference and diagnose RBAC or network egress before issuing a replacement key.

Resources

• CAST AI Getting Started
• CAST AI Helm Charts
• Terraform Provider
• API Reference

Next Steps

Proceed to castai-hello-world to query cluster savings and node status.