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Version: 0.4

Civo Account Setup

Your Civo account serves two purposes with Konstruct Hosted Control Plane:

  • Authentication — You sign in to Konstruct at konstruct.saas.civo.com using your Civo account credentials via OIDC. Your Civo account is your identity.
  • Cloud provisioning — Your Civo API key allows Konstruct to provision and manage clusters on your behalf.

This means a Civo account is a prerequisite for both accessing Konstruct and creating infrastructure.

What You Need​

  • A Civo account — create one if you do not have one yet
  • Billing configured on your Civo account (credit or debit card)
  • Sufficient quota for Kubernetes clusters in your target region (see Quotas below)
  • Your Civo API key

Create a Civo Account​

If you already have a Civo account, skip to Get Your Civo API Key.

  1. Go to dashboard.civo.com/signup and create an account.

  2. Confirm your email — Civo sends a confirmation email to the address you registered with. Click the link to verify your email and gain access to the dashboard.

  3. Verify your phone number — Before you can launch resources, Civo requires phone verification. Select your country, enter your mobile number, and submit the one-time code sent via text.

  4. Add a payment method — A valid credit or debit card is required to create resources. Enter your card details and billing address. Civo does not support prepaid or virtual cards.

  5. Account verification — Most accounts are verified automatically. In some cases, Civo staff may need to manually review your account before activation.

Introductory Credit

New Civo accounts receive introductory credit to get started. Two accounts using the same payment method cannot both receive introductory credit.

After your account is verified, you can sign in to Konstruct and generate an API key for cluster provisioning.

Get Your Civo API Key​

  1. Log in to the Civo dashboard.
  2. Click your account name in the top-right corner and select Profile.
  3. In the left sidebar, click Security.
  4. Under API Keys, click Create an API key if you do not already have one.
  5. Copy the API key value. Store it securely — it is only shown once.
warning

Your Civo API key grants full access to your Civo account, including the ability to create, modify, and delete resources. Treat it as a sensitive secret.

Connect Your Civo Account in Konstruct​

  1. Log in to konstruct.saas.civo.com.
  2. In the left sidebar, go to Settings > Cloud Accounts.
  3. Click Add Cloud Account.
  4. Select Civo as the provider.
  5. Enter a name for this account (for example, civo-production).
  6. Paste your API key into the API Key field.
  7. Click Save.

Konstruct validates the key immediately. If validation fails, confirm the key is active in the Civo dashboard.

Manage Multiple Civo Accounts​

You can connect more than one Civo account — for example, separate accounts for production and development, or accounts across different billing entities.

Repeat the steps above for each account. When creating a cluster, select the appropriate cloud account from the Cloud Account dropdown.

Permissions​

The API key you provide inherits the permissions of the Civo user it belongs to. Konstruct uses the key to:

  • Create and delete Civo Kubernetes clusters
  • Query cluster status and kubeconfig
  • Create firewall rules required for cluster networking

No additional role configuration is required in Civo. A standard API key for an account owner or team member with cluster management permissions is sufficient.

Quotas​

Civo applies default quotas per account and region. Common limits that affect Konstruct:

ResourceDefault QuotaNotes
Kubernetes clusters5Includes management and workload clusters
Node instances50Total across all clusters
Load balancers5Used for cluster ingress

To request a quota increase, contact Civo support or open a ticket from the Civo dashboard.

tip

Check your current usage and quota at Settings > Quota in the Civo dashboard before provisioning large environments.

Rotate or Revoke an API Key​

If you need to rotate your Civo API key:

  1. Generate a new API key in the Civo dashboard under Profile > Security.
  2. In Konstruct, go to Settings > Cloud Accounts.
  3. Click the cloud account you want to update.
  4. Click Edit and paste the new API key.
  5. Click Save.
  6. After confirming Konstruct can connect, revoke the old key in the Civo dashboard.
warning

Do not revoke the old key before updating Konstruct. If Konstruct loses access to your cloud account, cluster operations including provisioning and deprovisioning will fail until the key is updated.

What's Next?​

  • Quickstart — provision your first management and workload cluster
  • Limitations — understand current hosted constraints