Nex

Nex is the NATS Execution Engine—a lightweight way to run distributed workloads over NATS without standing up heavy orchestration. Nodes auction work to nexlets (runtime agents) so you can run native binaries today and extend the platform with custom runtimes when you need them.

Overview

• Simple, imperative deployment model backed by NATS messaging.
• Works with native executables out of the box; or bring your own runtime by writing a pluggable Nexlet.
• Every workload receives scoped NATS credentials, making pub/sub, request/response, and JetStream access immediate.

Installation

• Pre-built binaries: Download the latest release for your platform from github.com/synadia-io/nex/releases and place nex on your PATH.

• Go install: go install github.com/synadia-io/nex/cmd/nex@latest

• From source:

  git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/synadia-io/nex.git
  cd nex
  go build -o nex ./cmd/nex

Quickstart

1. Start NATS (or point to an existing server):

   nats-server -a 127.0.0.1 -p 4222

2. Start a Nex node (started with the native nexlet by default):

   nex -s nats://127.0.0.1:4222 node up
   nex -s nats://127.0.0.1:4222 node list  # verify the node is registered

3. Deploy a workload. Create a Nexfile:

   Note: Nexfiles are written in YAML.

   name: "system-reporter"
   description: "Reports system stats every 30 seconds"
   type: native
   lifecycle: service
   start_request:
     uri: "file:///bin/sh"
     argv:
       - "-c"
       - "while true; do echo \"[$(date '+%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S')] Uptime: $(uptime)\"; sleep 30; done"

   Deploy and observe:

   nex -s nats://127.0.0.1:4222 workload start -f Nexfile
   nex -s nats://127.0.0.1:4222 workload ls

For deeper guides, concepts, and nexlet development, read our docs.