What is the difference between the build runner and an install runner?

Last updated: January 31, 2026

QUESTION

What is the difference between the build runner and an install runner?

ANSWER

Nuon uses two types of runners to execute different phases of deployment: build runners (org runners) and install runners.

Build Runner (Org Runner)

The build runner executes build operations for your application components. It's status is visible as an icon in the left navigation bar of the dashboard home.

Key Characteristics:

  • One per organization - Shared across all apps and installs in your org

  • Runs in the Nuon's control plane

What it does:

  • Builds container images (OCI artifacts) from the components' source code

  • Executes Docker builds

  • Runs Terraform/Helm packaging operations

  • Creates component releases

  • Stores build artifacts in the org's container registry — to be used by customer installs

Example: If you change a component's TOML and run nuon apps sync, the build runner in your org executes the build job and creates a new container image for the component and stores it in the org's container registry.

Install Runner

The install runner deploys (installs) your application into customer cloud infrastructure. It's status is visible as an icon in the left navigation bar of the install page of the dashboard.

Key Characteristics:

  • One per install - Each customer cloud install has its own runner

  • Runs in the customer's cloud infrastructure (customer's AWS/Azure account

What it does:

  • Deploys Helm charts to customer Kubernetes clusters

  • Applies Terraform to customer cloud accounts

  • Manages Kubernetes manifests

  • Syncs secrets to customer namespaces

  • Executes action scripts like health checks

  • Manages Day-2 operations (updates, rollbacks)

Example: When a customer provisions an install, an install runner is deployed into their VPC in an ASG EC2 VM to handle all deployment operations.

How They Work Together

Build Phase: Build runner (org) compiles your code and creates release artifacts

Deploy Phase: Install runner (customer) deploys those artifacts into customer infrastructure

This separation ensures:

  • Build artifacts are created once, deployed many times

  • Customer credentials never leave their infrastructure

  • Each customer install is isolated

  • Builds can be shared across multiple customer installs

DOCS