Runpod usage (concepts)

Background knowledge for making the right choice before you act. This skill runs nothing — once you know what to do, execute with runpod-mcp/runpodctl (infra), flash (your own code), or companion-clis (models/images/data).

This skill explains; the golden paths demonstrate. When the question is really "how do I do X" rather than "how does X work", the verified end-to-end example is the faster answer — runpod/golden-paths/README.md. Read the concept here, then follow the path.

To author files for a custom template, use runpod-build-template; this lane supplies the shared concepts, not a competing packaging workflow.

Read the one reference file that matches the question:

Question	Read
First-run setup / auth — get + set RUNPOD_API_KEY, SSH, companion creds	reference/getting-started.md
Pods vs serverless, workers, cold starts, FlashBoot, queue vs load-balanced	reference/concepts.md
The development loop for ANY workload (start here) — plan → prefer prebuilt → provision → verify → teardown	reference/development-loop.md
Stand up / iterate a workload on a pod — the pod sub-loop	reference/pod-workflows.md
Deploy / iterate a serverless endpoint — Hub vs flash vs custom, invoke + verify	reference/endpoint-workflows.md
Install software on a pod — package hygiene, uv, non-interactive, caching	reference/on-pod-setup.md
Build a Docker image Runpod can run (handler contract, Dockerfile, --platform=linux/amd64)	reference/docker.md
How to build an image well — base image, layering, bake-in vs volume, pod vs serverless (queue/LB) contract	reference/building-images.md
Where data lives — container disk vs network volume, model caching, S3 access	reference/storage.md
Which GPU / how much VRAM / which CUDA version / cost & availability / data centers	reference/gpu-selection.md
Why a stopped pod may not restart with a GPU — pods are bound to one machine; what else is per machine	reference/pods-and-machines.md
Endpoint releases, rolling updates, version overlap, GitHub builds	reference/endpoint-builds-and-releases.md
Storing API tokens and keys as secrets and referencing them from env vars	reference/secrets.md
Reaching a pod or endpoint over HTTP (proxy URLs, exposed ports)	reference/networking.md
Common mistakes and how to avoid them	reference/gotchas.md

Exact facts: the concept files

The reference files explain. For a precise fact, or a rule an action must satisfy, read the concept files in concepts/ next to this file. There is one YAML file per concept (pod.yaml, network-volume.yaml, machine.yaml, …), each with its fields, states, relations and rules, and every rule cites the public source it comes from.

grep -il "volume disk" concepts/*.yaml    # find the concept by name or alias
grep -n "statement:" concepts/pod-volume-disk.yaml

• rules[].statement is the fact. see: points at related rules on other concepts.
• A rule with conflict: true records two public sources that disagree. Give both readings.
• A kind: process file explains a flow step by step. pod-deployment.yaml covers deploy, stop and restart, including why a restart can fail while the data center has stock.