Getting Started with Sentinel

Before you start, install Docker, Node.js 18+, Git, and create a Groq API key.

• Docker & Docker Compose – installation guide
• Node.js 18+ – downloads
• Git – installers
• Groq API key – Groq console

PostgreSQL, Kestra, and mock services are launched automatically via docker-compose.yml; no separate install is needed.

Clone the Sentinel repo and move into the project folder.

git clone https://github.com/SKfaizan-786/sentinel-devops-agent.git
cd sentinel-devops-agent

Backend (.env)

Copy the example env file and edit required values.

cp backend/.env.example backend/.env

At minimum, set GROQ_API_KEY, check the Postgres credentials, and change JWT_SECRET for anything beyond local testing.

Frontend (.env.local)

cd sentinel-frontend
cp .env.example .env.local
# set NEXT_PUBLIC_BACKEND_URL to http://localhost:4000
cd ..

Bring up backend, frontend, Kestra and dependencies in one step.

docker-compose up -d

Verify containers are running:

docker ps

You should see containers for the backend, frontend, Kestra, Postgres, and the mock services for auth, payment, and notification.

Install backend dependencies and run the quick setup script.

cd backend
npm install
npm run quick-setup

This seeds a default admin user for local development:
admin@example.com / password123 – change this after logging in.

If you prefer a Next.js dev server instead of the Dockerized frontend:

cd sentinel-frontend
npm install
npm run dev

The app will be available at http://localhost:3000. Ensure the backend is running on port 4000.

Use the Sentinel CLI to interact with the system.

cd cli
npm install
npm link

# Show overall system health
sentinel status

# Simulate failures (chaos tests)
sentinel simulate auth down
sentinel simulate payment degraded
sentinel simulate notification slow

# Trigger a manual heal action
sentinel heal auth

# Generate an AI incident report
sentinel report