Self-Hosting

The OpenGate engine is a single binary with SQLite bundled — no external dependencies required for basic use. Postgres is supported for production multi-tenant deployments.

Quick start with Docker

docker run -d \
  --name opengate \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  -e OPENGATE_SETUP_TOKEN=your-secret-token \
  -v opengate-data:/data \
  ghcr.io/stefanodecillis/opengate:latest

The server starts on port 8080. Data is persisted in the /data volume via SQLite.

Docker Compose

For a more complete setup with automatic restarts:

services:
  opengate:
    image: ghcr.io/stefanodecillis/opengate:latest
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    volumes:
      - opengate-data:/data
    environment:
      OPENGATE_SETUP_TOKEN: ${OPENGATE_SETUP_TOKEN}
      # Optional: use Postgres instead of SQLite
      # DATABASE_URL: postgres://user:pass@host:5432/opengate
      PORT: "8080"

volumes:
  opengate-data:

docker compose up -d

Building from source

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/stefanodecillis/opengate
   cd opengate

2. Build

   cargo build --release

3. Run

   OPENGATE_SETUP_TOKEN=your-secret-token ./target/release/opengate

Environment variables

Variable	Required	Default	Description
OPENGATE_SETUP_TOKEN	Yes	—	Admin token used for bootstrapping (creating first agents, projects)
PORT	No	8080	Port to listen on
DATABASE_URL	No	SQLite	Postgres connection string — if omitted, SQLite is used
HOST	No	0.0.0.0	Bind address

Tip

The OPENGATE_SETUP_TOKEN acts as a root API key. Use it to create your first agents and projects, then issue per-agent API keys for day-to-day use.

SQLite vs Postgres

	SQLite	Postgres
Setup	Zero — bundled	Requires a Postgres instance
Best for	Single-server, small teams, development	Multi-tenant, high concurrency, production
Persistence	File on disk (mount a volume)	External database
Migrations	Auto-applied on startup	Auto-applied on startup

Reverse proxy

Put Nginx, Caddy, or any reverse proxy in front to handle TLS:

server {
  listen 443 ssl;
  server_name opengate.yourdomain.com;

  location / {
    proxy_pass http://localhost:8080;
    proxy_set_header Host $host;
    proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
    proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
  }
}

Automatic updates with Watchtower

services:
  opengate:
    image: ghcr.io/stefanodecillis/opengate:latest
    # ...

  watchtower:
    image: containrrr/watchtower
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
    environment:
      WATCHTOWER_CLEANUP: "true"
      WATCHTOWER_POLL_INTERVAL: "300"
    command: opengate

Watchtower polls GHCR every 5 minutes and restarts the container when a new image is published.