Kurtosis service-manage

Manage services in Kurtosis enclaves. Add, inspect, stop, start, remove, update services. View logs, shell into containers, and execute commands. Use when you need to interact with running services.

install

source · Clone the upstream repo

git clone https://github.com/kurtosis-tech/kurtosis

Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/

T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/kurtosis-tech/kurtosis "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/service-manage" ~/.claude/skills/kurtosis-tech-kurtosis-service-manage && rm -rf "$T"

manifest: skills/service-manage/SKILL.md

Service Manage

Manage services running inside Kurtosis enclaves.

List services

# Services are shown in enclave inspect output
kurtosis enclave inspect <enclave-name>

View logs

# View logs
kurtosis service logs <enclave-name> <service-name>

# Follow logs in real time
kurtosis service logs <enclave-name> <service-name> -f

# Show all logs (not just recent)
kurtosis service logs <enclave-name> <service-name> -a

Shell and exec

# Get an interactive shell
kurtosis service shell <enclave-name> <service-name>

# Execute a single command
kurtosis service exec <enclave-name> <service-name> -- ls -la /data

# Execute with pipes (wrap in sh -c)
kurtosis service exec <enclave-name> <service-name> -- sh -c "cat /etc/hosts | grep localhost"

Inspect a service

kurtosis service inspect <enclave-name> <service-name>

Shows detailed info including ports, status, and container ID.

Stop and start

# Stop a service (keeps it in the enclave, just stops the container)
kurtosis service stop <enclave-name> <service-name>

# Restart a stopped service
kurtosis service start <enclave-name> <service-name>

Remove a service

kurtosis service rm <enclave-name> <service-name>

Add a service manually

kurtosis service add <enclave-name> <service-name> <image>

Update a service

kurtosis service update <enclave-name> <service-name>

Common patterns

Verify after operations

Always confirm stop/start/rm succeeded:

# Check service state changed as expected
kurtosis enclave inspect <enclave-name>

# For start: verify the service responds
kurtosis service exec <enclave-name> <service-name> -- wget -qO- http://localhost:8080/health

Check if a service is healthy

# HTTP health check
kurtosis service exec <enclave-name> <service-name> -- wget -qO- http://localhost:8080/health

# Check process is running
kurtosis service exec <enclave-name> <service-name> -- ps aux

# Check listening ports
kurtosis service exec <enclave-name> <service-name> -- netstat -tlnp

Debug a crashing service

# Check recent logs
kurtosis service logs <enclave-name> <service-name>

# Check all logs from the start
kurtosis service logs <enclave-name> <service-name> -a

# Inspect for error status
kurtosis service inspect <enclave-name> <service-name>

Copy data between services

Use file artifacts in Starlark:

# Store files from one service
artifact = plan.store_service_files(service_name="source-svc", src="/data/output", name="shared-data")

# Mount in another service
plan.add_service(name="dest-svc", config=ServiceConfig(
    image="my-image",
    files={"/input": artifact},
))

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Service won't start	Port conflict or image issue	Check logs with `kurtosis service logs` , verify image exists
Exec command hangs	Container has no shell	Use a base image with shell or `exec -- /bin/sh -c "command"`
Logs show no output	Service crashed immediately	Use `kurtosis service logs -a` to see full history
Service not listed	Wrong enclave	Run `kurtosis enclave ls` and `kurtosis enclave inspect` to find it
Stop has no effect	Service already stopped	Check status with `kurtosis enclave inspect` first