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📦 The $6/mo Baseline

Running professional-grade Kubernetes requires enough overhead for the control plane. We have established the $6/mo VPS (1GB RAM) as the official LaraKube CLI Minimum Viable Server.

💡 Why 1GB RAM?​

While running K3s on 512MB is technically possible with heavy swapping, it is not production-stable. The 1GB baseline ensures:

  • Control Plane Breathing Room: Kubernetes control plane components (Kube-apiserver, etcd, etc.) require consistent memory to prevent jitter.
  • Service Stability: Your core Laravel services (Web, Horizon, Reverb) need guaranteed RAM to handle traffic spikes.
  • Zero-Downtime Rollouts: During a deployment, Kubernetes spins up new pods while terminating old ones. With <1GB of memory, the spike in resource usage during this "handoff" period frequently leads to TLS timeouts or worker crashes.

🛠 Stability Safeguards​

When you run larakube cloud:provision on your baseline server, we enforce two critical stability measures:

  1. Automated Swap File: We automatically provision a 1GB Swap file. This provides a vital "safety net" during high-load events, ensuring that the kernel doesn't aggressively terminate your application processes.
  2. Remote Build Offloading: Since your 1GB droplet is dedicated to running your app, LaraKube CLI forces all CPU/RAM-heavy build processes (Docker, npm, composer) to the GitHub Actions runner. This is the "Secret Sauce" that allows a small VPS to run a full K8s stack flawlessly without crashing during deployments.

By adhering to this baseline, you get a production environment that is stable, performant, and ready for real traffic, all for the price of a cup of coffee.