Asya is not a layer on top of Kubernetes — it is Kubernetes. Actors are Custom Resources, managed by standard Kubernetes tooling. No proprietary CLI, no separate control plane, no new API to learn.

AsyncActor is a CRD#

Every actor is an AsyncActor Custom Resource. This means:

• kubectl — kubectl get asyncactors, kubectl describe, kubectl delete
• Helm — deploy actors as Helm releases with values overrides
• GitOps — ArgoCD and Flux reconcile actor manifests like any other resource
• RBAC — standard Kubernetes roles control who can create or modify actors
• Namespaces — actors are namespaced resources with standard isolation

Crossplane Compositions render pods#

Asya uses Crossplane Compositions to transform an AsyncActor spec into a full Kubernetes Deployment. The composition renders:

• The runtime container with the handler ConfigMap
• The asya-sidecar container for envelope routing
• Optional state proxy sidecar
• Volumes, secrets, and environment variables

No operator webhook mutates pods after creation. The composition is the single source of truth for the pod spec.

Standard Kubernetes building blocks#

Runs anywhere#

Because Asya uses standard Kubernetes primitives, it runs on any conformant cluster:

• Local development: Kind, Minikube, k3s
• Cloud: EKS, GKE, AKS
• On-premises: kubeadm, Rancher, OpenShift

Further reading#

• AsyncActor CRD specification — full field reference
• Crossplane component reference — composition architecture, XRD schema
• Quickstart — deploy your first actor on a local cluster