> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.siderolabs.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Quickstart

> A short guide on setting up a simple Talos Linux cluster locally with Docker.

This guide walks you through spinning up a local Talos Linux cluster using Docker and `talosctl` in a few minutes.

[YouTube video player](https://www.youtube.com/embed/IO2Yo3N46nk?si=Ry7mru1X7-oSzEx0)

## Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following tools installed:

* `talosctl`: On macOS or Linux, install `talosctl` by running the command below. For other systems, see the [talosctl documentation](https://docs.siderolabs.com/talos/v1.15/getting-started/talosctl.md):

  ```bash theme={null}
  brew tap siderolabs/tap
  brew trust siderolabs/tap
  brew install siderolabs/tap/talosctl
  ```

* `kubectl`: Refer to the [Install kubectl documentation](https://kubernetes.io/docs/tasks/tools/install-kubectl/) for installation instructions.

## Create the cluster

With your prerequisites in place, run the following command to create a cluster on Docker:

```bash theme={null}
talosctl cluster create docker
```

> [!NOTE]
>
> If you are using Docker Desktop on macOS and encounter the error: *Cannot connect to the Docker daemon at unix:///var/run/docker.sock. Is the docker daemon running?*, you may need to manually create the Docker socket symlink:`sudo ln -s "$HOME/.docker/run/docker.sock" /var/run/docker.sock`

Once the cluster is up, verify that you can reach Kubernetes by running:

```bash theme={null}
kubectl get nodes -o wide
```

You should see output similar to the following:

 NAME            STATUS   ROLES           AGE     VERSION             INTERNAL-IP   EXTERNAL-IP   OS-IMAGE                    KERNEL-VERSION   CONTAINER-RUNTIME
talos-cfx-nh0   Ready    \<none>          2m53s   v1.37.1     10.5.13.47    \<none>        Talos v1.15.0-beta.0      \<host kernel>    containerd://2.1.6
talos-vb5-xfr   Ready    control-plane   2m51s   v1.37.1     10.5.13.46    \<none>        Talos v1.15.0-beta.0      \<host kernel>    containerd://2.1.6&#x20;

From here, you can explore the Talos API using `talosctl`:

```bash theme={null}
talosctl --help
```

## Destroy the cluster

When you are done, run the following command to tear down the cluster and clean up all associated resources:

```bash theme={null}
talosctl cluster destroy
```


This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.