Quickstart

Three values and one command, on a host with Docker.

Talos ships as a Docker Compose stack. You need Docker with the Compose plugin and nothing else — no source checkout, no Node, no toolchain. The images are public, so there is no registry login.

cp .env.example .env
# fill in POSTGRES_PASSWORD, JWT_SECRET and ENCRYPTION_KEY

docker compose up -d

The first start takes a minute or two: it applies the database schema and loads the permission catalogue before the API accepts traffic. Follow along with docker compose logs -f backend. You are ready when you see the mode line.

[Mode] SELF_HOSTED (self-hosted)

Then open http://localhost:3000 and complete first-run setup to create your administrator account and organization.

There is no API URL to configure

The browser talks to the frontend on a relative /api path and the frontend forwards to the backend inside the Docker network. Talos therefore works at whatever hostname you put in front of it. An earlier version of the example file had a PUBLIC_API_URL setting; it never had any effect, because that value is compiled into the frontend at build time and cannot be supplied to a prebuilt image at run time.