Prerequisites

Before you fire up the CLI, let’s make sure your environment is ready. FrameWorks has specific requirements for network topology and access control to function correctly.

Hardware & OS Requirements

Minimum Development Requirements

For testing or small-scale deployments, you can run a consolidated stack on a single node:

• Single Node: 4+ cores, 16GB RAM, 100GB SSD.
• Note: Performance will be limited for high-concurrency streaming or heavy analytics loads.

Hardware (recommended)

Central Tier:

• CPU: 8+ cores
• RAM: 32GB+ (64GB recommended if running database services on the same node)
• Disk: 500GB+ SSD
• Network: 1Gbps+ connectivity

Regional Tier:

• CPU: 4+ cores
• RAM: 16GB+
• Disk: 250GB+ SSD
• Network: 1Gbps+ connectivity

Edge Tier:

• CPU: 8+ cores
• RAM: 16GB+
• Disk: 1TB+ SSD (for recordings)
• Network: 10Gbps+ connectivity (for high-bandwidth streaming)

Required Software

Docker Deployment:

• Docker Engine (24.0+) and Docker Compose (2.20+) for containerized service deployment.

Native Deployment (Linux):

• systemd for service management.
• PostgreSQL client tools (or Postgres-compatible).
• Basic build tools (GCC, Make, Git) for native compilation.

Native Deployment (macOS):

• macOS 14.0+ (Sonoma or later), Apple Silicon (arm64) only.
• launchd for service management (built into macOS).
• Homebrew for dependency management.

Both:

• SSH server with key-based authentication.
• curl, wget, tar, gzip.
• netstat, ss, or lsof for network diagnostics.

Install the CLI

Script (Linux & macOS):

curl -sSfL https://github.com/Livepeer-FrameWorks/monorepo/releases/latest/download/install.sh | sh

This installs the frameworks binary to /usr/local/bin. Override the install directory with FRAMEWORKS_INSTALL_DIR or the version with FRAMEWORKS_VERSION.

Homebrew (macOS):

brew tap livepeer-frameworks/tap
brew install frameworks-cli

Network Prerequisites

For multi-host deployments, you need:

1. WireGuard Mesh Network - Secure communication between backend infrastructure nodes (central/regional/database). See Mesh Networking for the GitOps identity and Privateer bootstrap flow.

2. systemd-resolved - Production backend hosts must run systemd-resolved so Privateer can route .internal names to the local DNS listener.

3. Firewall Rules - Open the manifest’s WireGuard listen port between backend nodes and keep internal service ports private to the mesh.

SSH Access

SSH Key Setup

Generate SSH keys for CLI access:

# Generate ED25519 key (recommended)
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "frameworks-cli" -f ~/.ssh/frameworks_ed25519

# Or RSA key (4096-bit)
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "frameworks-cli" -f ~/.ssh/frameworks_rsa

Copy public keys to all hosts:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/frameworks_ed25519.pub admin@central-01
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/frameworks_ed25519.pub admin@central-02
# ... repeat for all hosts

SSH Configuration

Configure ~/.ssh/config for convenient access:

# Central Tier
Host central-01
    HostName 10.18.0.10
    User admin
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/frameworks_ed25519

Host central-02
    HostName 10.18.0.11
    User admin
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/frameworks_ed25519

# Regional Tier
Host regional-eu-01
    HostName 10.18.1.10
    User admin
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/frameworks_ed25519

Host regional-us-01
    HostName 10.18.1.11
    User admin
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/frameworks_ed25519

# Edge Nodes
Host edge-eu-01
    HostName <edge-public-ip>
    User admin
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/frameworks_ed25519

User Permissions

The CLI user needs sudo privileges for:

• Installing packages
• Managing systemd services
• Configuring network settings
• Managing Docker (or be in docker group)

# Add user to docker group (Docker deployments)
sudo usermod -aG docker admin

# Or configure passwordless sudo for specific commands
admin ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/systemctl, /usr/bin/docker

External Services

FrameWorks requires several external services. See External Services for detailed setup guides.

Required:

• Cloudflare (required for Navigator-managed root/API/web/admin DNS)
• Bunny DNS (optional; when configured, Navigator delegates media cluster DNS to Bunny)
• S3-compatible object storage (Cloudflare R2, Hetzner, or another compatible provider)
• SSL/TLS certificates (ACME/Let’s Encrypt managed via Navigator/Caddy, or bring your own)

Optional:

• SMTP provider (required for contact forms, auth emails, billing notifications, and support/newsletter email)
• Stripe (billing)
• MaxMind GeoIP (geographic routing)

Next Steps

Once prerequisites are complete:

1. Create Cluster Manifest: See Cluster Manifest Reference
2. Generate Mesh Identity: frameworks mesh wg generate --manifest <manifest> --hosts-file <hosts.enc.yaml>
3. Check Mesh Identity: frameworks mesh wg check --manifest <manifest>
4. Run Host Preflight: frameworks cluster preflight --manifest <manifest>
5. Provision + Initialize: frameworks cluster provision --manifest <manifest>
6. Verify Health: frameworks cluster doctor --manifest <manifest>

See CLI Reference for the grouped operator command overview.