> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.akua.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Akua
> The packaging substrate behind every Akua installation
[Akua](https://github.com/akua-dev/akua) is the open-source packaging substrate behind Akua's per-installation renders. Every install on Akua is an akua Package: a typed, signed, deterministically-rendered KCL program that turns customer inputs into Kubernetes manifests.
You don't have to author an akua Package by hand to use Akua. The platform can synthesize one from supported sources, such as Helm charts or container images. See [Packages](/packages) for the platform contract around Package versions.
## What akua provides
| Surface | Purpose |
| ----------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **`package.k`** | Install composition: KCL logic that turns inputs into Kubernetes resources |
| **`akua.toml` + `akua.lock`** | Pinned dependencies (Helm charts, other Packages, KCL libraries) with cosign signatures |
| **`akua render`** | Executes the Package against customer inputs, produces deploy-ready manifests |
| **`akua export`** | Emits the Package's input schema as standards-pure JSON Schema 2020-12 / OpenAPI 3.1 |
A programmatic API exists for embedding akua in your own tooling. See the [akua repo](https://github.com/akua-dev/akua) for details.
## How Akua uses akua
Akua runs akua at three points in the install lifecycle:
1. **Schema for the install wizard**: Akua exports the Package's `Input` schema as JSON Schema; the wizard renders from it. UI hints from `@ui(...)` decorators flow through as `x-ui` extensions.
2. **Per-install rendering**: for every customer install, Akua renders the Package against the customer's `inputs.yaml`, vendoring upstream deps and writing the rendered manifests into the [installation repository](/installs/repositories).
3. **Version selection**: when an installation moves to a different Package version, Akua renders that installation independently.
## Where to start
Authoring `package.k`: the `Input` schema, `@ui` annotations, composition.
How `@ui` drives the install wizard at `/i/` and what offers carry.
Source code, full CLI reference, SDK docs, examples.
The per-install git repo that materializes a rendered Package.
## Status
Akua is **pre-alpha**. The Package format and CLI contract are stable enough to build on, but the CLI verb set is still iterating. Akua pins to a specific akua version per release and bumps deliberately.
For canonical, always-fresh references, the `akua` repository is authoritative. The pages here are curated for product authors building on akua within Akua; full architecture, embedded engines, security model, and roadmap docs live in the [akua docs directory](https://github.com/akua-dev/akua/tree/main/docs).
## Related topics
The per-install git repository that materializes a rendered Package.
How your Package's schema drives the install wizard.
Wizard, overrides, and reviewed repository changes.
Wrap a Package into a sellable product with billing.