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Overview

The Tembo self-hosted stack runs as a single NixOS machine. All services sit behind nginx on port 80:
ServicePathPort (internal)
Web UI/3000
API/api/*3001
Admin UI/admin/3002
Installer / setup wizard/installer/3999
PostgreSQL 16—5432
PGAdmin Console—5050
Redis—6379
Prometheus—9090
Tembo distributes a pre-built NixOS image via an Azure Compute Gallery shared to your subscription. You create a VM from that image, open the required ports, and configure a single JSON file. No OS setup or image building is required on your end.

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Step 1: Request Access

To get started with Tembo self-hosted, you will need a license key and access to the Tembo Azure Compute Gallery image. Book a demo with the Tembo team to get set up: Once you have a license key, contact Tembo to have the image shared with your Azure subscription. You will need to provide:
  • Your license key
  • Your Azure Subscription ID
  • Your preferred Azure region (e.g. eastus)
Tembo will share the Compute Gallery image with your subscription. You will receive the gallery details (subscription ID, resource group, and gallery name) once sharing is confirmed.
The image contains no embedded secrets. Initial configuration is written to /var/lib/tembo/config.json at first boot by the tembo-config-seed service.

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Step 2: Create a Resource Group

az group create \
  --name tembo-self-hosted-rg \
  --location eastus

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VM requirements

ResourceMinimumRecommended
vCPUs48
RAM16 GB32 GB
Disk128 GB256 GB
For the best sandbox performance, use a VM size that supports nested virtualization (e.g. Standard_D8s_v3, Standard_D16s_v3, or any v3/v4/v5 D-series or E-series). This allows sandbox VMs to run with hardware acceleration via KVM.

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Via the Azure CLI

az vm create \
  --resource-group tembo-self-hosted-rg \
  --name tembo-self-hosted \
  --image "/subscriptions/<tembo-subscription-id>/resourceGroups/<tembo-resource-group>/providers/Microsoft.Compute/galleries/<tembo-gallery-name>/images/tembo-self-hosted/versions/latest" \
  --size Standard_D8s_v3 \
  --os-disk-size-gb 128 \
  --admin-username eng \
  --generate-ssh-keys \
  --public-ip-sku Standard
Replace the placeholders with values provided by Tembo:
PlaceholderDescription
<tembo-subscription-id>Tembo’s Azure subscription ID
<tembo-resource-group>Resource group where the gallery lives
<tembo-gallery-name>Name of the Azure Compute Gallery
Note the IpAddress in the output — you will need it in later steps.

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Via the Azure Portal

  1. Go to Virtual machines > Create
  2. Select your resource group and region
  3. Under Image, click See all images, then Shared images and select the Tembo image
  4. Choose a VM size (Standard_D8s_v3 or larger recommended)
  5. Under Disks, set the OS disk size to at least 256 GiB
  6. Under Networking, select or create a virtual network
  7. Create the VM

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Step 4: Configure the Network Security Group

By default, Azure VMs block all inbound traffic except SSH. Add inbound rules to allow access to Tembo:
PriorityPortProtocolSourceActionPurpose
10080TCP(your preferred IP range)AllowTembo web UI and API
1103999TCPYour IPAllowInstaller / setup wizard
1208888TCPYour IPAllowVS Code server (config editing)
13022TCPYour IPAllowSSH access
Ports 3999 and 8888 are only needed during initial setup. You can remove those rules after configuration is complete.

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Via the Azure CLI

# Allow HTTP on port 80
az network nsg rule create \
  --resource-group tembo-self-hosted-rg \
  --nsg-name tembo-self-hostedNSG \
  --name AllowHTTP \
  --priority 100 \
  --protocol Tcp \
  --destination-port-ranges 80 \
  --access Allow

# Allow installer — restrict to your IP
az network nsg rule create \
  --resource-group tembo-self-hosted-rg \
  --nsg-name tembo-self-hostedNSG \
  --name AllowInstaller \
  --priority 110 \
  --protocol Tcp \
  --destination-port-ranges 3999 \
  --source-address-prefixes <your-ip>/32 \
  --access Allow

# Allow VS Code server — restrict to your IP
az network nsg rule create \
  --resource-group tembo-self-hosted-rg \
  --nsg-name tembo-self-hostedNSG \
  --name AllowVSCode \
  --priority 120 \
  --protocol Tcp \
  --destination-port-ranges 8888 \
  --source-address-prefixes <your-ip>/32 \
  --access Allow

# Allow SSH — restrict to your IP
az network nsg rule create \
  --resource-group tembo-self-hosted-rg \
  --nsg-name tembo-self-hostedNSG \
  --name AllowSSH \
  --priority 130 \
  --protocol Tcp \
  --destination-port-ranges 22 \
  --source-address-prefixes <your-ip>/32 \
  --access Allow
Or in the portal: VM > Networking > Add inbound port rule.
Tembo services route through nginx on port 80. Do not open ports 3000, 3001, or 3002 publicly — those are internal-only ports. Accessing the app directly on port 3000 bypasses nginx and will break authentication.

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Step 5: Run the Installer and Configure the Instance

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5a: Run the install workflow

Once the VM is running, open the installer in your browser: 
http://<vm-public-ip>:3999
Follow the on-screen steps to complete the install workflow. This provisions the Tembo services and prepares the instance for use. This install can take up to an hour to fully complete. Subsequent updates will be faster.

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5b: Configure /var/lib/tembo/config.json

After the installer finishes, open the VS Code server to edit the configuration file: 
http://<vm-public-ip>:8888
The VS Code server opens directly to /var/lib/tembo/config.json. You can also see it in the VS Code file explorer on the right as config.json. A few values must be set correctly for the install to work. Ensure these keys are present and correct: 
{
  "betterAuth.secret": "<random string, at least 32 characters>",
  "api.base": "http://<vm-ip>/api/",
  "frontend.url": "http://<vm-ip>"
}
KeyNotes
betterAuth.secretAuto-generated on first boot if missing. Leave it if it is already set.
api.baseMust match the public URL of the API. Must end with a trailing /.
frontend.urlDefaults to http://localhost:3000, which breaks auth on a remote VM. Set this to the actual IP or hostname.
After saving, restart the API. There is a background service that should restart the API for you on finishing edits, but you can also do this from a terminal in the VS Code server, or via SSH: 
sudo systemctl restart tembo-ts-api
The config seed runs before tembo-ts-api, tembo-ts-cron, and agent workers on every boot. Manual edits are preserved — the seed only writes values that are missing or empty.
If you have a domain name, set both api.base and frontend.url to the domain (e.g. https://tembo.example.com/api/ and https://tembo.example.com) rather than the raw IP. This makes it easier to rotate VMs or add a load balancer later.

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Step 6: Verify the Install

Open a browser and navigate to: 
http://<vm-ip>
You should see the Tembo sign-up or sign-in screen. Check service status on the VM: 
systemctl status tembo-ts-api
systemctl status tembo-ts-agent-X
systemctl status tembo-web
systemctl status nginx
For the tembo-ts-agent-X, depending on how many agents you chose to provision in the install step, X will be that number. (Eg. 3 agents make tembo-ts-agent-1, tembo-ts-agent-2, tembo-ts-agent-3)

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Troubleshooting

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Auth 404 on sign-up

Symptom: POST http://<vm-ip>:3000/api/auth/sign-up/email returns 404. Cause: You are hitting the Next.js frontend directly on port 3000, bypassing nginx. The /api/auth/* handler does not exist at that port. Fix: Access the app through nginx on port 80: 
http://<vm-ip>       # correct
http://<vm-ip>:3000  # wrong — internal port only
If port 80 is blocked, check the Azure NSG inbound rules.

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401 after sign-up

Symptom: Sign-up succeeds but all subsequent API requests return 401. Cause: Billing is enabled by default. Without Stripe configured, organization creation fails silently, leaving the user with no active org. Fix: Confirm billing.enabled: false is set in the API environment in your config.json. Contact Tembo support if this was not set in the distributed image. Symptom: Sign-in redirects back to the login page, or cookies are not set. Cause: api.base or frontend.url in config.json does not match the URL you are accessing the app from. Better Auth uses these for trusted origins and cookie domain validation. Fix: Edit /var/lib/tembo/config.json and set both keys to the exact origin you are using in the browser. Restart the API: 
sudo nano /var/lib/tembo/config.json
sudo systemctl restart tembo-ts-api

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Services not starting

# Check all Tembo services at once
systemctl list-units 'tembo-*'

# View logs for a specific service
journalctl -u tembo-ts-api -n 100
journalctl -u tembo-web -n 100
The tembo-config-seed service must complete before the API and agents start. If the API fails immediately at boot, check: 
journalctl -u tembo-config-seed
cat /var/lib/tembo/config.json

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VM not reachable after launch

  • Confirm the VM is in a Running state in the Azure portal
  • Verify the NSG has an inbound rule for port 80 (and port 22 for SSH)
  • If using a virtual network, confirm the subnet has a route to the internet

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Need Help?

If you run into any issues, contact support@tembo.io.