Create a cluster

Creating a cluster is two steps: find the machines for the size you want, then create the cluster from one of those offers. Offers change as capacity moves, so create soon after you look.

A cluster is all or nothing and is billed from when every machine is up, for every machine, until you terminate it. See Clusters.

Dashboard
Ask your agent
See the code

On the Clusters page, click Create cluster:

Configure: a name (machines are named after it: train-0, train-1, …) and an SSH key (optional; keyless access from the dashboard and CLI always works), the GPU, how many nodes (machines; node 0 is the head), the software (None, Slurm, Kubernetes or Ray) and a shared volume (optional). Then Find machines.
Pick machines: each row is where the machines are, how they are joined, the kind of machine and the GPUs each one has, with the price per hour for the whole cluster and the price per machine under it. Turn on Include community hosts to see those too.
Create cluster. The sheet waits until every machine is reserved, then the cluster opens and shows each node as it joins, then the software installing.

Request a quote next to Create cluster is for reserved, very large or custom clusters.

Connect the Runcrate MCP server to Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or any MCP client, then ask in plain words:

Make me a Slurm cluster of 4 machines with 8 H100s each, show me where and what it costs per hour first.

Is my cluster train ready yet? Run the NCCL test on it and tell me the bus bandwidth.

What the agent does with the first prompt:

cluster_offers with gpu_type: "H100", gpus_per_node: 8, nodes: 4 and stack: "slurm", and shows you the locations, how the machines are joined, hourly_rate for the whole cluster and hourly_rate_per_node for each machine.
After you pick, create_cluster with name, the offer_id, node_count: 4 and stack: "slurm". The cluster comes back provisioning.
get_cluster until status is ready.

For the second prompt it calls get_cluster, then run_cluster_nccl_test, and reads last_test from get_cluster until it has passed. delete_cluster terminates every machine. See MCP tools.

The CLI:

# Where 4 machines of H100s can start now, at every GPU count a machine comes with
runcrate clusters offers --gpu H100 --nodes 4 --stack slurm

# Only machines with 8 GPUs each
runcrate clusters offers --gpu H100:8 --nodes 4 --stack slurm

# Create it from an offer
runcrate clusters create --name train --offer <offer-id> --nodes 4 --stack slurm

# Follow it until it is ready
runcrate clusters get train

The API (https://www.runcrate.ai/api/v1, with your API key):

curl "https://www.runcrate.ai/api/v1/clusters/offers?gpu_type=H100&gpus_per_node=8&nodes=4&stack=slurm" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNCRATE_API_KEY"

curl -X POST https://www.runcrate.ai/api/v1/clusters \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $RUNCRATE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Idempotency-Key: train-2026-10-26" \
  -d '{"name": "train", "offer_id": "<offer-id>", "node_count": 4, "stack": "slurm"}'

gpus_per_node is 1, 2, 4 or 8; leave it out to see every size of machine. Each offer has hourly_rate (the whole cluster at nodes machines) and hourly_rate_per_node (one machine). When an offer lists allowed_node_counts, only those sizes can be created from it. With a volume, list offers with volume=true: only machines that may hold a volume are shown.The answer to the create is the cluster, provisioning. Poll GET /clusters/{id} until status is ready. Sending the same Idempotency-Key again returns the same cluster instead of creating another. See the API reference.

When it cannot start

What you see	What happened	What to do
`OFFER_GONE` (409)	The offer was taken between looking and creating, or it cannot run the software or volume you asked for. Nothing was created	Pick one of the current offers, listed in `details.offers`
`NO_CAPACITY` (503)	Not every machine could be reserved, so none was kept. Nothing was billed	Try another offer, or again after `Retry-After`
`insufficient_credits` (402)	Your balance does not cover an hour of the whole cluster (at least $10)	Add credits
`BUDGET_REACHED` (402)	The environment has used its monthly budget	A workspace owner or admin can raise it
`rate_limited` (429)	Clusters in the workspace did not finish starting twice in a day, so new ones are paused for a day	Wait until the time in the message, or contact support
Status failed	A machine did not come up, or the machines could not reach each other, within 25 minutes. Every machine was released and nothing was billed	Read `failure_detail` and the events, then create again from a current offer
Status degraded	The software failed to install. The machines are up and billed	Read `stack_detail`, then retry the install from the cluster page or `POST /clusters/{id}/retry-install`, or terminate

Resize

Where the offer allows it (resize on the cluster), add workers to a ready cluster with Add workers on its page or with POST /clusters/{id}/nodes, and remove one with DELETE /clusters/{id}/nodes/{rank}. A new worker joins the private network and the software, and is billed from when it is up; a removed one is drained from the software first. The head (rank 0) stays, and a cluster keeps at least 2 machines.

Terminate

Terminating stops every machine together and ends billing for the whole cluster. Copy what you need off the machines first: their disks and /shared are deleted, and only a volume keeps /shared/volume.

Dashboard: Terminate all on the cluster page.
Agent: delete_cluster.
CLI: runcrate clusters delete train.
API: DELETE /clusters/{id}.

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When it cannot start

Resize

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​When it cannot start

​Resize

​Terminate

When it cannot start

Resize

Terminate