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Install Coder in your infrastructure

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This section describes how to plan, install, and configure a Coder deployment, from the initial decisions you need to make in order to successfully run Coder to a steady-state operating environment. The five phases are meant to be read in order: each phase produces the required information for the next phase.

Tip

If you only need the coder command-line client on your own machine, refer to Coder CLI. You don't need the rest of this section.

If you want a Coder deployment on a single machine as quickly as possible, follow the Quickstart instead. It installs Coder and launches a first workspace without the planning and preparation work described here. Come back to this section when you want an expanded Coder deployment.

The five phases

Phase	What it answers	What you finish with
1. Plan your deployment	Which components run where, how large they need to be, who operates them	A deployment shape and a size target you can hand to an infrastructure team
2. Prepare prerequisites	What must exist before installation starts, and who owns each piece	DNS, certificates, a database, a license, and an identity provider application
3. Install the control plane	How to install Coder on the platform your team operates	A running Coder deployment you can sign in to
4. Validate your deployment	Whether the deployment is hardened, works, and holds up under load	Evidence that the deployment is ready for real users
5. Operate and maintain	How to keep the deployment healthy, upgraded, and correctly sized	An upgrade and scaling routine, plus a removal path

Phases 1 and 2 are advisory rather than a gate. Nothing stops you from installing the control plane first, but the recommendations in those phases are what keep a deployment from needing to be rebuilt later. Don't know where to start? Read Plan your deployment and Prepare prerequisites first.

Coder CLI

Install the standalone Coder CLI binary on Linux, macOS, or Windows to run the control plane and client.

Plan your deployment

Learn the architecture, size the deployment, and record the decisions that shape it.

Prepare prerequisites

Gather the DNS records, certificates, database, license, and identity provider application a deployment needs.

Install the control plane

Choose a platform and install the Coder control plane on it.

Validate your deployment

Harden the deployment, then prove it works and holds up under load.

Operate and maintain

Run the deployment day to day, add external provisioners, upgrade it, and remove it when needed.

Who does the work

A Coder deployment usually crosses team boundaries. The following actors appear throughout this section, so you can anticipate which conversations you need to start and how long they're likely to take.

Actor	Responsible for	Appears in phase
Coder platform owner	The deployment itself: installation, configuration, upgrades, and support	1 to 5
Infrastructure team	Clusters, virtual machines, networking, load balancers, and egress rules	1 to 4
DNS and TLS owner	The Coder hostname, the wildcard record for workspace apps, and certificates	2
Database administrator	PostgreSQL provisioning, sizing, backups, and restore tests	2, 4, 5
Identity provider administrator	The OIDC or SAML application, claims, and group mappings	2
Security and compliance reviewer	Audit requirements, network policy, data handling, and sign-off	2, 4
Licensing contact	Purchasing and renewing the Coder license	2
Template author	The workspace templates developers use once the deployment is running	4, 5

These are roles, not people. One person may serve as several actors, which is common for a proof of concept run by a single platform engineer. Several people may also serve as one actor, which is common for an infrastructure team that splits networking and compute ownership. Use the table to identify who has to agree, not to count headcount.