Speed up cluster bootstrapping process #15

Goal

Improve the speed of the cluster bootstrapping process. Currently bootstrapping a new cluster takes longer than desired, impacting developer iteration time and agent startup latency.

Scope

Investigate and optimize the cluster bootstrap pipeline, which may include:

• Profiling the current bootstrap flow to identify bottlenecks
• Optimizing container image builds and layer caching
• Parallelizing independent bootstrap steps
• Reducing unnecessary work during bootstrap (e.g., redundant downloads, installs)
• Caching artifacts across bootstrap runs

Deliverable

Measurable reduction in cluster bootstrap time with before/after benchmarks.

Originally by @drew on 2026-02-16T21:45:34.359-08:00