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Prerequisites

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Verify Prerequisites

To verify that Docker Compose and Docker are installed on the machine where you plan to install Tracecat, run the following commands.

# Check Docker installation
docker

# Check Docker Compose installation
docker compose

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Download Configuration Files

If you’re deploying Tracecat into an external instance (e.g. AWS EC2, GCP Compute Engine, Azure VM), please note that you’ll have to set PUBLIC_APP_URL and PUBLIC_API_URL in the .env file to the IP address or host you are accessing Tracecat from.

For example, if you are port forwarding Tracecat from http://localhost (port 80) inside AWS EC2 to http://localhost:8080 on your local machine, you must set PUBLIC_APP_URL to http://localhost:8080 and PUBLIC_API_URL to http://localhost:8080/api/.

You can set these options when running the env.sh configuration script.

Tracecat requires a set of environment variables and credentials stored in .env file to run. We created a helpful shell script to generate the .env file. Use the commands listed below to download the required configuration files (env.sh, .env.example) and generate your own .env file.

curl -o env.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TracecatHQ/tracecat/0.13.4/env.sh
curl -o .env.example https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TracecatHQ/tracecat/0.13.4/.env.example
chmod +x env.sh && ./env.sh

You should see the following instructions after executing env.sh.

If basic auth is enabled, you’ll first be prompted to input the email and password for the default admin user.

Then you’ll be prompted to input the following:

  • y (yes to production mode)
  • localhost (default host)
  • n (no to postgres SSL mode).

Otherwise, if you’re deploying Tracecat into an external / Cloud VM, input:

  • y (yes to production mode)
  • <host-where-tracecat-is-exposed> (e.g. localhost:8080)
  • n (no to postgres SSL mode).

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Download Caddyfile

Tracecat uses Caddy as a reverse proxy. You’ll need to download the following Caddyfile to configure this service.

curl -o Caddyfile https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TracecatHQ/tracecat/0.13.4/Caddyfile

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Download Docker Compose File

curl -o docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/TracecatHQ/tracecat/0.13.4/docker-compose.yml

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Start Tracecat

Run the command below to start Tracecat and all related services. Make sure your docker-compose.yml and generated .env files are in the same directory.

docker compose up

Your Tracecat instance should now be running on http://localhost. To access the Tracecat GUI, visit http://localhost.

Tracecat comes with a REST API, you can visit the live API docs at http://localhost/api/docs.

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Login

Find out how to configure authentication in Tracecat. View docs.

Every new Tracecat deployment is created with a default admin user.

  • If basic auth is enabled, the email and password for this user is configured in the .env file, which is created as part of the env.sh script.
  • Otherwise, if OAuth or SAML SSO is enabled, the default admin user is assigned to the first user that logs into the Tracecat instance.

This user owns the organization and has admin rights to every workspace in the Tracecat deployment.

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Next Steps

  • Log into Tracecat and build your first playbook. View quickstart.
  • Tracecat comes with basic (email + password) authentication. Find out how to configure other authentication methods. View docs.
  • Read inline comments in the generated .env file to better understand Tracecat’s configurations. View .env.example file
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