Walkthrough

Get started with HolmesGPT by running your first investigation.

Prerequisites

Before starting, ensure you have:

• ✅ HolmesGPT CLI installed - See CLI Installation Guide
• ✅ AI provider API key configured - See AI Provider Setup
• ✅ kubectl access to a Kubernetes cluster - Any cluster will work

Run Your First Investigation

Let's investigate a pod with HolmesGPT to see the value it provides:

1. Create a test pod with an issue:

   kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robusta-dev/kubernetes-demos/main/pending_pods/pending_pod_node_selector.yaml
   

2. Ask Holmes to investigate:

   holmes ask "describe the user-profile-import pod and explain any issues"
   

3. See the value: Holmes will analyze the pod, identify that it's stuck in "Pending" state due to an invalid node selector, and suggest specific remediation steps - all without you needing to manually run kubectl describe, check events, or dig through logs.

What You Just Experienced

HolmesGPT automatically:

• ✅ Gathered context - Retrieved pod status, events, and related information
• ✅ Identified the root cause - Invalid node selector preventing scheduling
• ✅ Provided actionable solutions - Specific commands to fix the issue
• ✅ Saved investigation time - No manual troubleshooting steps required

Clean Up

Remove the test pod:

kubectl delete pod user-profile-import

Next Steps

• Add integrations - Connect monitoring tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and DataDog
• Troubleshooting guide - Common issues and solutions
• Join our Slack - Get help from the community
• Request features on GitHub - Suggest improvements or report bugs