SELF-HOSTING.md

Self-Hosting Guide

This guide is for deploying and self-hosting Tambo.

Looking to contribute? See CONTRIBUTING.md for local development setup.

Overview

Tambo consists of three services:

Service	Technology	Host Port	Description
Web	Next.js	8260	Dashboard and user interface
API	NestJS	8261	REST API for client requests
PostgreSQL	PostgreSQL 17	5433	Database

Quick Start with Docker

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose installed
• OpenAI API key (or compatible provider)

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/tambo-ai/tambo.git
cd tambo

2. Set Up Environment

./scripts/cloud/tambo-setup.sh

This creates docker.env from docker.env.example.

3. Configure Environment Variables

Edit docker.env with your values. At minimum, you must set:

# Required
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=your-secure-password-here
API_KEY_SECRET=your-32-character-api-key-secret
PROVIDER_KEY_SECRET=your-32-character-provider-secret
NEXTAUTH_SECRET=your-nextauth-secret
FALLBACK_OPENAI_API_KEY=your-openai-api-key

docker.env.example includes placeholder values; replace them with strong secrets before starting the stack.

4. Start Services

./scripts/cloud/tambo-start.sh

5. Initialize Database

./scripts/cloud/init-database.sh

6. Access Your Deployment

• Web Dashboard: http://localhost:8260
• API: http://localhost:8261

Learn More

For detailed configuration, production deployment, and operations guides, see the docs site:

• Self-Hosting Overview — Architecture, auth model, and security considerations
• Quickstart — Step-by-step first deployment
• Authentication — OAuth and email login setup
• Docker Compose — Production deployment and building images
• Kubernetes — K8s manifests for all three services
• Operations — Backup, restore, upgrade, and monitoring
• Environment Variables — Full reference for all configuration options
• Scripts — All helper scripts and npm aliases
• Troubleshooting — Common issues and fixes