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quanuxctl habitat equip is the first step in deploying a QuanuX execution node. It takes a virgin Linux server and transforms it into a conditioned node ready to receive the C++ engine — installing all required build tools, native libraries, and writing the /etc/quanux/habitat.env file that binds the node to the QuanuX VPC. Until habitat runs successfully, the nest drop command will refuse to execute.

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Synopsis

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What habitat provisions

Running habitat equip installs the following on the remote server: In addition to package installation, habitat applies IPC tuning to the OS and generates the node’s environment binding.

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Target groups

The TARGET_GROUP argument maps to a group of servers in your node inventory. The inventory is resolved from your live infrastructure — never from static IP lists.

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The habitat.env contract

The most important output of quanuxctl habitat equip is the file /etc/quanux/habitat.env written to the remote server. This file binds the node to the QuanuX internal network by pinning NATS_URL to the internal NATS instance, resolved dynamically from your infrastructure state at deploy time. Example /etc/quanux/habitat.env written to the execution node:
IP addresses in habitat.env are resolved dynamically from your infrastructure state. Hardcoded IP assignments are not supported. If you modify habitat.env manually, subsequent nest deployments will reject the binding.
The nest drop command reads this file at startup. If the file is absent or malformed, the engine will not start.

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Example

Confirm your target nodes are live and reachable before running habitat. Habitat reads infrastructure state when generating habitat.env, so a missing or unreachable node will cause the deployment to fail early.

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Error handling

Habitat is designed to fail completely and loudly if any dependency cannot be met. This is intentional.
If habitat equip fails partway through, do not SSH into the server and attempt manual fixes. Diagnose the failure from the quanuxctl output and re-run the command against a freshly provisioned server if necessary. A partially conditioned node is an unreliable node.
The correct recovery sequence is:
1

Read the failure output

Review the quanuxctl terminal output to identify which step failed and why.
2

Correct the root cause

Fix the underlying issue — network access, package availability, or infrastructure state — then re-run the command.
3

Reprovision if necessary

If the server is in an unknown or partially provisioned state, destroy it via your infrastructure provider and recreate it from scratch before re-running habitat.
4

Re-run habitat

Run quanuxctl habitat equip edge_nodes again against the clean server.

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Next step

Once habitat completes successfully, proceed to nest drop to compile and install the C++ engine:
See quanuxctl nest for full details.