Quick start
Get Tether running in under 5 minutes using Docker. This is the fastest path to a working installation.
Before you start
Make sure you have Docker and Docker Compose installed:
bash# Verify Docker is installed docker --version # Expected: Docker version 24.x.x or later # Verify Compose V2 is installed docker compose version # Expected: Docker Compose version v2.x.x
Commands in this documentation use docker compose (with a space, no hyphen). If you have the older docker-compose V1 command, upgrade before continuing: apt install docker-compose-v2
Step 1 — Clone and configure
bashgit clone https://github.com/atechlab-am/tether cd tether cp .env.example .env
Open .env in any text editor and set these values before proceeding:
bash# Generate a real secret: # python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(32))" SECRET_KEY=paste-your-generated-secret-here BASE_DOMAIN=yourdomain.com # the domain Tether will run on [email protected] ADMIN_PASSWORD=choose-a-strong-password DB_PASSWORD=choose-a-db-password DB_ROOT_PASSWORD=choose-a-root-password
The defaults in .env.example are placeholders only. Using them on a public server means anyone can log into your Tether installation. Always set a real SECRET_KEY, ADMIN_PASSWORD, and database passwords.
Step 2 — Start Tether
bashdocker compose up -d
Docker Compose starts two containers: tether-db (MariaDB 11) and
tether-app (the Tether web application). On first boot, MariaDB
initialises its data directory, which takes 15–30 seconds. The app container
waits for the database healthcheck to pass before starting.
Watch progress with:
bashdocker compose logs -f
When you see Application startup complete, Tether is ready.
Step 3 — Open Tether
Navigate to http://your-server-ip:8000 in your browser. You should see the Tether login page.
Email: the value you set for ADMIN_EMAIL (default: [email protected])
Password: the value you set for ADMIN_PASSWORD (default: admin)
Change your password immediately after first login via Settings → Change Password.
What's next
- First login & setup — what to do after you log in for the first time
- Reverse proxy & HTTPS — put nginx in front of Tether with a valid SSL certificate
- DNS & subdomains — configure wildcard DNS so client subdomains work
- Creating clients — add your first client organisation