Getting Started

Archodex provides detailed operational intelligence based on your service interactions that go beyond existing observability solutions. The Archodex Agent utilizes eBPF to safely and efficiently observe, filter, and record details of all network traffic, even when encrypted. The Agent uses Archodex Rulesets to determine which network traffic to observe and what data on infrastructure resources and events to pull from the traffic.

The Archodex Agent can also pull information about resources in your environment. For example, it can query for GitHub Secret Scan results to correlate hardcoded secrets with observed service interactions.

Your first question before stepping further may be: What does Archodex do with confidential information it has observed?

By default the Archodex Agent doesn’t send data anywhere. The Archodex Agent will simply record observations and log them as output unless you provide a Report API Key. You can even run the agent while firewalled off from network access to ensure confidential data never leaves your environment. You are in full control.

The Archodex Agent securely sends observations to the Archodex backend service. Observations are encrypted in transit using TLS 1.3 and stored encrypted at rest. The Archodex Service implements strict access controls to ensure only authorized users can access your data. When using an Archodex.com managed account your data is stored in an isolated database in a locality of your choice. You can also self-host the Archodex Service to have full control over where your data lives and how it can be accessed.

Secret values are never transmitted or stored. The Archodex Agent cryptographically hashes observed secret values, like API keys, using account-specific salt values. This ensures your secret values are never transmitted, while still allowing the Archodex Service to correlate observed secret usage across workloads.

User Account

To get started with Archodex, first create a free user account at https://app.archodex.com/signup. This user account can be used to access one or more Archodex accounts. It is similar to how you can login to GitHub with a user account and then create personal repositories and/or access one or more GitHub organizations.

Create an Archodex Account

Next, create an Archodex account by following the prompts in the Archodex Dashboard after creating your new user account. Later on, you can create additional Archodex accounts by clicking on the Account Switcher in the left sidebar under the Archodex logo and selecting New Account, or by navigating to https://app.archodex.com/create_account.

An Archodex account represents an individual, organization, or team using Archodex.

Account Types

When creating an account you can choose between the following two options:

Managed Account: A managed Archodex.com account where we process and store your data in an isolated and encrypted database in a locality of your choice.
Self-Hosted Account: A self-hosted Archodex account where you run your own Archodex Service to have full control over where your data lives and how it is accessed. See the Self-Host documentation for instructions on running your own Archodex Service.

Create a Report API Key

After creating a new account you will be prompted to report in observations using the Archodex Agent. You’ll need a Report API Key, which the dashboard will suggest creating. You can also create and manage Report API Keys in the Account Settings page.

Using the Agent

The Archodex Agent is easy to use in a variety of environments. Choose one of the options below to get started:

Kubernetes Use the Archodex Agent in Kubernetes Pods or across an entire Cluster

CI/CD Workflows Use the Archodex Agent in GitHub Actions Workflows

Secrets Scanners Use the Archodex Agent to report on hardcoded secrets found by source code scanners

Other Environments Use the Archodex Agent to observe workloads in other environments