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A golden image is a machine image that already contains the StackKits release, its tools and the container images of the core services. A server started from it does not download them first. Each clone enrolls on its own at first boot and gets its own identity.
Golden images are qualified but not published as a download yet. There is no bootable installer image for bare metal. Planned parts are marked as planned below.

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What the stackkit image commands do

Three commands prepare the neutral part of an image. The flags are in the stackkit image reference.
  • stackkit image plan prints the profile: which core container images the cache contains. The profiles are cloud-core-compose (default), basement-core-compose and basement-core-lite-compose.
  • stackkit image prepare stores the exact running release and pulls the core images. It creates no owner, starts no services and creates no volumes.
  • stackkit image verify checks the release bytes, the empty target directory, the host and the image cache again.
Run them on a dedicated Ubuntu host with a local Docker daemon, no containers and no unrelated images. StackKits does not delete state to make an image neutral, and it refuses a host that holds an owner or service data. Ubuntu 26.04 is the default target. Ubuntu 24.04 is also targeted.

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What happens on first boot

The manifest prepare writes is cache metadata. It grants no identity and no permission to change anything. On first boot each clone re-checks the release, the installed files, the host and the cache, then runs the usual init, generate, apply and verify steps. Network access is still needed for first-boot service integrations and optional workloads.

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Who does what

StackKits owns the neutral cache. Techstack owns building the machine image, removing machine identity and enrolling each clone with kombify Guard.

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Current state

  • Images for Ubuntu 26.04 and Ubuntu 24.04 were qualified on 2026-10-02 against StackKits v0.50.3. The checks covered two clone boots with distinct machine and SSH identities and two independent enrollments.
  • The qualification covers the cloud-core-compose profile on Linux amd64. Other profiles and architectures need their own evidence.
  • Images are not published as a download yet.
  • Planned: a bootable installer image for bare metal. It does not exist yet.
  • Managed servers are currently set up with cloud-init and the install script, not from the image. See Managed servers.
To install on your own hardware today, use a prepared Linux host and the installer from Install in 10 minutes. Check OS compatibility for the current status of each system. Last reviewed: 2026-11-10