Getting Started

Verified against the Docker Compose install from the official docs. Commands assume a Linux host with Docker and Docker Compose, roughly 2 CPU and 2 GB RAM.

Prerequisites

• A host with Docker and the Docker Compose plugin.
• About 2 CPU cores and 2 GB of RAM.
• openssl for generating secrets.

Install

The Compose file bundles PostgreSQL and Redis, so no external database is required (docs).

curl -O https://docs.goauthentik.io/compose.yml

A first working setup

1. Download the Compose file (above).

2. Generate the required secrets into a .env file next to compose.yml.

   echo "PG_PASS=$(openssl rand -base64 36 | tr -d '\n')" >> .env
   echo "AUTHENTIK_SECRET_KEY=$(openssl rand -base64 60 | tr -d '\n')" >> .env

3. Pull the images and start the stack.

   docker compose pull
   docker compose up -d

4. Open the initial setup page and create the first administrator account (akadmin).

   http://<your-host>:9000/if/flow/initial-setup/

Verify it works

Confirm the containers are running, then load the UI:

docker compose ps

Browse to http://<your-host>:9000; a healthy install shows the login flow, and after the initial setup you reach the admin interface. The setup flow itself is rendered by the same flow executor described in Architecture.

Where to go next

For production concerns (TLS termination, high availability, external PostgreSQL/Redis, hardening, and configuring outposts for forward-auth in front of Traefik/nginx/Envoy), see the official documentation. For how flows and policies are evaluated under the hood, see Internals.