6.1 Agent Lifecycle (create, register, online/offline)

Orbnetes deployment and release orchestration documentation for operators and platform teams.

Agents are the execution workers of Orbnetes. The control plane decides what should run; agents execute where and how it runs.

Core agent responsibilities:

  • poll API for claimable jobs,
  • execute job steps in shell,
  • stream logs and status updates,
  • send heartbeat and runtime metadata,
  • receive update instructions when configured.

Agent lifecycle in Orbnetes follows a predictable path:

  1. Create agent entry in UI
  2. Generate registration token (short-lived bootstrap secret)
  3. Install and register binary on host
  4. Agent starts polling and becomes online
  5. Agent executes matching jobs by tag and project access
  6. Agent transitions offline/inactive if heartbeat stops or status changes

State meanings:

  • Online: agent is active and reporting heartbeat.
  • Offline: agent not currently reachable (service/network/host issue likely).
  • Inactive: administratively excluded from task execution.

Operational note:

  • Offline does not remove historical data; it only affects scheduling availability.
  • Inactive is a deliberate control switch and should be used when draining or retiring runners.