Installation

Insights ships as a single binary distributed only through Synadia. To obtain it, sign up for a trial or arrange a license agreement.

Supported platforms:

Linux (amd64, arm64)
macOS (amd64, arm64)
Windows (amd64)

The Linux binaries are fully static: they bundle everything they need and link no system libraries, so a single binary runs unchanged across distributions. The only requirements are a Linux 3.2 or newer kernel and any 64-bit x86 or ARM CPU; no special instruction-set extensions are needed. This covers glibc and musl (Alpine) distributions as well as minimal scratch and distroless images.

Insights resolves hostnames with its own built-in DNS resolver rather than the operating system's. Standard DNS names and /etc/hosts entries resolve as usual, but multicast DNS (.local) names do not — reference NATS servers and other endpoints by IP address or DNS name.

Download

Your trial or license welcome materials include the download URL and credentials for the release binaries. Pick the archive matching your platform, extract it, and verify it runs:

./insights --help

Configure a License

A license JWT is required when running against a real NATS system. The simulator (--simulator.enabled) skips license validation, so you can evaluate Insights without one.

Provide the JWT as either a token or a file. The file form is recommended for production — it stays out of shell history and is easier to rotate.

insights --license.file /etc/insights/license.jwt

license:
  file: /etc/insights/license.jwt

Inline tokens (--license.token, INSIGHTS_LICENSE_TOKEN, or license.token in YAML) are also supported. If both are set, the file wins. See Configuration › license for the full reference.

At startup, Insights logs the expiry — watch the log line so you renew before the grace period runs out:

level=INFO msg="license validated" expires_at=2026-12-31T23:59:59Z

For a new license or renewal, contact Synadia at https://www.synadia.com/contact.

Third-Party Licenses

The release binaries bundle open-source dependencies. See the Software Bill of Materials for the full inventory and license details.

Next Steps

Quick Start. Run Insights with the simulator or connect to a real NATS system.
Deployment Guide. Production deployment topologies and configuration.