Getting Started — Overview¶
Time to first query end-to-end : 30 min walltime. Time to first impression (no install) : 2 min.
Welcome. This 9-page guide takes you from zero to your first end-to-end query on AKKO. Whether you are a data engineer, an analyst, a steward, or an admin, every step is short, copy-paste friendly, and validated against the live demo every release.
What is AKKO?¶
AKKO (Analytics Kernel, Keep Ownership) is a sovereign data and AI platform you deploy on your own infrastructure and operate forever. It is layer-first : every capability you need to run a modern lakehouse is shipped as a pluggable layer, wired together with single sign-on, governance, and observability out of the box. Bring your servers, your laptop, or your sovereign cloud — AKKO runs the same way everywhere.
The 10 Lego layers¶
AKKO is built as ten composable layers. You can swap any of them without rewriting the rest.
| # | Layer | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Compute | Distributed transformations on lakehouse tables, batch and streaming. |
| 2 | Query Engine | Federated SQL across every catalog, with role-aware row and column filtering. |
| 3 | Storage | S3-compatible object storage that holds raw, curated, and serving zones. |
| 4 | Catalog | Open table format + REST catalog that exposes governed, versioned tables. |
| 5 | Orchestration | Pipeline scheduler with lineage emission, retries, and SLA alerts. |
| 6 | Lab | In-browser notebook IDE with Python, R, Julia, Quarto, and VS Code. |
| 7 | BI | Self-service dashboards and ad-hoc SQL Lab with shared assets. |
| 8 | AI | Natural-language query, RAG, model gateway, evaluation, and inference. |
| 9 | Governance | Identity provider, policy engine, audit trail, and steward review surface. |
| 10 | Observability | Metrics, logs, traces, alerts, and a single dashboards portal. |
Why ten layers, not one stack? Each layer has a published Protocol contract. You can swap the default engine for a partner engine by changing one Helm value. No re-platforming.
Who is this guide for?¶
| Persona | What you will learn |
|---|---|
| Data engineer | Spin up the platform, wire a catalog, run distributed transforms. |
| Analyst | Ask a question in natural language, drill into a generated dashboard, share it. |
| Steward | Review AI-suggested tags, govern PII, run audit reports. |
| Admin | Manage roles, scope data access, enforce identity policy. |
| Prospect | Tour the live demo in 2 minutes with no install. |
Two ways to follow this guide¶
Path A — Live demo (instant)¶
No install. Open https://demo.akko-ai.com, log in with a seeded persona, and complete the tour in your browser. Start with chapter 01 — Quick start (live demo).
Path B — Local k3d (15 min)¶
Deploy AKKO on your laptop with Docker Desktop or Colima. You own every layer, every byte stays local. Start with chapter 02 — Install on your laptop.
Chapter map¶
| # | Chapter | Time | Persona |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Quick start — Live demo (no install) | 2 min | any |
| 2 | Install on your laptop (local k3d) | 15 min | engineer / admin |
| 3 | First login and the 5 personas | 5 min | any |
| 4 | First query — Natural-language SQL | 5 min | analyst / engineer |
| 5 | First dashboard — BI surface | 5 min | analyst / viewer |
| 6 | First data source — Add a catalog | 5 min | engineer / admin |
| 7 | Governance tour — Platform vs Data RBAC | 5 min | admin / steward |
| 8 | Troubleshooting | reference | any |
| 9 | Next steps | 2 min | any |
Conventions¶
Every chapter follows the same shape :
- Time estimate at the top (
Time : 5 min). - Persona badge at the top (
Persona : alice (admin)). - A short Pre-requisites box.
- Numbered steps with copy-paste commands and an Expected result for each.
- Key screenshots at decision points.
- A Troubleshooting section listing the 3 to 5 most common issues.
- A Next link that points to the following chapter.
All commands and URLs use a
DEMO_HOSTplaceholder you can override. The default ishttps://demo.akko-ai.com(the public sandbox). For a local install replace it with your own domain (for examplehttps://demo.akko.local).
Ready? Open chapter 1.