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Light Mode vs Full Mode

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Audience

This page is for operators, maintainers, and developers choosing between different bootstrap paths.

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Goal and Scope

This page explains:
  1. how light mode differs from full mode
  2. why both still target K3s as the formal runtime base
  3. when to evolve from light mode toward full mode

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Core Concepts

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Shared properties

  • both use the binary entry for bootstrap
  • both still rely on K3s for formal runtime
  • neither means “run the whole platform forever as one local process”

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Light mode

Best for:
  • development validation
  • minimal platform bring-up
  • resource-constrained environments
Characteristics:
  • lighter dependency deployment
  • faster startup-oriented defaults

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Full mode

Best for:
  • production-oriented validation
  • fuller dependency and security baselines
  • rehearsing a runtime closer to the formal production shape

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Standard Workflow

  1. choose a bootstrap mode
  2. complete preflight, source selection, and K3s initialization
  3. deploy minimal or fuller dependencies according to the chosen mode
  4. transition into K3s image-based runtime

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CLI Examples

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Web UI Path

Choose light/full mode in the install wizard and review the mode-specific guidance.

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Pitfalls / Risk Notes

  • light mode does not bypass the clustered runtime model; it only uses a lighter bootstrap configuration
  • full mode is not a separate architecture, just a fuller dependency and runtime baseline