Installation

Deploy the MonSPHERE backend via Docker Compose — the only supported deployment path today.

MonSPHERE's backend is a modular monolith compiled into 21 service binaries, deployed as one Docker Compose stack. There is currently one real deployment path: Docker Compose. This page is honest about that — a Kubernetes Helm chart is planned but not shipped (see Deployment and the Roadmap).

Docker Compose (all environments)

git clone https://github.com/monsphere/api.git
cd api
cp .env.example .env   # set DB/Redis passwords, JWT secret, mail settings
docker compose up -d

This brings up all 28 containers: PostgreSQL, Redis, NATS, Prometheus, VictoriaMetrics, Alertmanager, blackbox-exporter, nginx, and 21 MonSPHERE service binaries (api, monitoring-api, dashboard-api, reporting-api, platform-api, agent-gateway, alert-engine, incident-service, notification-service, integration-api, webhook-worker, usage-worker, scheduler, worker, and more). The same Compose file is used in development and production — only environment variables differ.

On-Prem / Air-Gapped

Docker Compose deployment works identically on-prem. For air-gapped environments, mirror the built images into your own registry ahead of time — no service makes an outbound call at runtime except optional outbound webhook/email delivery. Pair this with an offline license (see Licensing & Subscriptions) to activate without a validation call home.

Cloud

MonSPHERE Cloud runs this exact stack for you — no installation step, just create an account and start adding monitors.

Kubernetes

Workloads running on Kubernetes are fully monitorable today via the MonSPHERE agent and standard Prometheus exporters (see Kubernetes solutions). Running the MonSPHERE control plane itself on Kubernetes via a Helm chart is on the roadmap and not yet available — don't build automation against a chart that doesn't exist yet.

Verifying the install

docker compose ps
curl http://localhost:8089/api/v1/health

All services report healthy in docker compose ps once Postgres migrations complete and NATS/Redis connections establish — this typically takes under a minute on first boot.