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Prerequisites: Node.js 22+, Yarn 1.x, and a running Rancher Manager instance (>= 2.10.0).
1

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/pastures-farm/pastures-rancher.git
cd pastures-rancher
2

Install dependencies

yarn install --ignore-engines
The --ignore-engines flag is required because @rancher/shell declares engine constraints that conflict with Node 22.
3

Build the extension

yarn build-pkg pastures
This compiles the Pastures extension into a UMD bundle under dist-pkg/.
4

Serve the extension locally

yarn serve-pkgs
This starts a local HTTP server on http://127.0.0.1:4500 that serves the built extension package.
5

Developer Load in Rancher

  1. Open your Rancher Manager UI
  2. Navigate to ☰ → Extensions
  3. Click the ⋮ (three-dot) menu in the top right
  4. Select Enable Developer Load
  5. Paste the extension URL:
http://127.0.0.1:4500/pastures-0.1.0/pastures-0.1.0.umd.min.js
  1. Click Load
The Pastures sidebar items will appear immediately.
6

Enable demo mode

Navigate to Pastures → Settings and toggle Demo Mode to ON. This provides synthetic data for every feature so you can explore the full UI without configuring a backend.
7

Configure an AI model

Choose one of:
  • Rancher Oracle — Enter your API key from pastures.farm/pricing in Settings. This gives you grounded diagnostics with source citations from 48K+ real fixes.
  • BYO model — Point to any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, Azure, etc.) in Settings.
See AI Model Configuration for details.
Demo mode works without any backend or API key. It’s the fastest way to evaluate Pastures.

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Next steps

Architecture

Understand how the extension, engine, and AI layer connect

Features

Walk through every Pastures feature