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Headless Mode

Instead of running Gadgets interactively, you can also install Gadget Instances on your server, so they keep running even if you are no longer connected. This also ensures that Gadgets will be resumed after a node restart or - depending on the environment - when nodes are added to your cluster.

Creating Gadget Instances​

To create a new Gadget Instance on your server / cluster, you can use the run command with the --detach option:

$ gadgetctl run trace_exec:latest --detach
INFO[0001] installed on node "local" as "61c8fdd9b75e1aec3c242347f18cf854"

The command returns the ID of the newly installed Gadget Instance.

warning

When upgrading server versions, please make sure to also upgrade all existing Gadget Instances to avoid compatibility issues. For example in Kubernetes you should see following warning in the server logs:

$ kubectl logs -n gadget -l k8s-app=gadget
...
time="2025-09-26T07:50:38Z" level=warning msg="This gadget was built with ig v0.42.0 and it's being run with v0.44.1. Gadget could be incompatible"
time="2025-09-26T07:50:40Z" level=error msg="running gadget: starting operators: starting operator \"oci\": starting operator \"ebpf\": creating eBPF collection: program ig_trace_dns: load program: bad CO-RE relocation: invalid func unknown#195896080 (303 line(s) omitted)"
...

Please delete and re-create the Gadget Instance to resolve this.

Listing Gadget Instances​

To list all existing Gadget Instances on the server, you can run:

$ gadgetctl list
ID           NAME                     TAGS                     GADGET
4f5ae12c54bd serene_tu                                         trace_open:latest
61c8fdd9b75e brave_bartik                                      trace_exec:latest

Attaching to a Gadget Instance​

If you want to see the output of the Gadget Instance, you can attach to it using the (partial) ID or name:

$ gadgetctl attach 61c8fdd9b75e
RUNTIME.CONTAINERNAME    COMM                 PID        TID PCOMM               PPID ARGS          ERR… USER          LOGINUSER    GROUP
magical_pike             bash              282432     282432 containerd-s…     282410 /bin/bash          root          uid:4294967… root
magical_pike             groups            282454     282454 bash              282453 /usr/bin/gro…      root          uid:4294967… root
magical_pike             dircolors         282456     282456 bash              282455 /usr/bin/dir…      root          uid:4294967… root

$ gadgetctl attach brave_bartik
RUNTIME.CONTAINERNAME    COMM                 PID        TID PCOMM               PPID ARGS          ERR… USER          LOGINUSER    GROUP
magical_pike             bash              282432     282432 containerd-s…     282410 /bin/bash          root          uid:4294967… root
magical_pike             groups            282454     282454 bash              282453 /usr/bin/gro…      root          uid:4294967… root
magical_pike             dircolors         282456     282456 bash              282455 /usr/bin/dir…      root          uid:4294967… root

Deleting a Gadget Instance​

To delete one or more Gadget Instances, just provide the names or (partial) IDs to the delete command, like so:

$ gadgetctl delete 4f 61
4f5ae12c54bd7c2058c0484ebd13dbc2
61c8fdd9b75e1aec3c242347f18cf854