Sei Deployment Architecture

Sei uses a Cosmos-style validator deployment backed by charts/chain-templates and variables/sei in chain deployment repository.

Deployed roles

Role	File	Node placement	Notes
Validator	variables/sei/validator-01.yaml	dedicated Kubernetes node	server_type: validator, currently signerMode: local, uses hostPath reuse from persistent chain data directory.
Horcrux signer 1	variables/sei/horcrux-01.yaml	dedicated Kubernetes node	v3 cosigner overlay with Vault shard/ECIES refs.
Horcrux signer 2	variables/sei/horcrux-02.yaml	dedicated Kubernetes node	v3 cosigner overlay with ordinal-specific Vault refs.
Horcrux signer 3	variables/sei/horcrux-03.yaml	dedicated Kubernetes node	v3 cosigner overlay with ordinal-specific Vault refs.

Common values to review first

variables/sei/common-values.yaml sets the chain identity and default runtime profile:

• chain ID: pacific-1.
• storage intent: 2Ti host-backed storage.
• preparer enabled.
• Sei runtime image: ghcr.io/sei-protocol/sei:v6.5.0 from the validator overlay.
• baseline ports from the shared port registry.

Validator-specific behavior

The validator template (charts/chain-templates/templates/sei.yaml) renders a host-network workload. That means:

1. Every exposed port must be checked against docs/port-registry.md.
2. The node-level filesystem path is part of the deployment contract.
3. Rollback must preserve both data directory and signer state.

The current validator overlay uses:

• high resource profile: CPU 16, memory 100, no limits.
• hostPath migration/reuse: persistent chain data directory.
• Vault refs for node key and local priv-validator key/state.
• endpoint overrides that enable EVM HTTP/WebSocket surfaces.

Signer migration note

The presence of Horcrux overlays does not by itself mean the validator is already signing through Horcrux. validator-01.yaml is the current source for signerMode; document cutover state explicitly before syncing signer-related changes.

Preflight checklist

• Render the Sei Applications locally.
• Confirm signerMode in validator-01.yaml matches the intended state.
• Confirm Vault paths for node key and local signer state exist.
• Confirm Horcrux shard/ECIES paths for all three signer overlays exist before Horcrux cutover.
• Confirm the persistent chain data directory exists on the scheduled Kubernetes node and matches expected ownership.
• Confirm host-network ports are free on validator and signer nodes.