Tyk Install Repository

Tyk deployment configurations for Docker, Kubernetes, and bare metal. All configurations are transparent, documented, follow best practices, and ready to use. The repository is also an Agent Plugin, so an AI coding agent can deploy and verify Tyk from it.

Prerequisites

Open source vs paid - Tyk Gateway and Tyk Pump are open source (MPL 2.0) and need no license. Tyk Dashboard, Tyk Developer Portal, Tyk Operator and Tyk Multi Data Center Bridge (MDCB) need a license key: request one with a Tyk Self-Managed trial (the key arrives by email). For a hosted control plane, create a Tyk Cloud account. The canonical comparison is Tyk deployment options and licensing.

To run only the open source Gateway, use docker/oss/ or kubernetes/helm-oss/ here, or the two-minute Tyk Open Source Gateway quick start. The Docker OSS stack ships a keyed example API in the current Tyk OAS format and a five-minute proof of concept: one API key, 10 requests per minute, the 429 that proves it.

Required licenses depend on deployment type:

• OSS: none
• Self-Managed: Dashboard license, Portal license (optional)
• Hybrid: Tyk Cloud account with MDCB credentials
• MDCB: Dashboard license and MDCB license
• Operator: Operator license
• AI Studio: none for Community Edition, AI license for Enterprise Edition

Quick Start

The fastest way to try Tyk Self-Managed is the Getting Started deployment. It starts the full stack and preloads sample APIs, policies and a configured Developer Portal:

git clone https://github.com/TykTechnologies/tyk-install
cd tyk-install/docker/self-managed
cp .env.example .env   # set TYK_LICENSE_KEY and TYK_PORTAL_LICENSE
cd ../getting-started
bash start.sh

Log in to Tyk Dashboard at http://localhost:3000 with developer@tyk.io / specialpassword. For the full walkthrough, see the Tyk Self-Managed quick start.

Or choose a deployment:

Docker

Kubernetes (Helm)

Self-Managed and Hybrid both run on Red Hat OpenShift from tyk-charts 5.4.0 by layering their values-openshift.yaml overlay. See each guide's "Deploying on Red Hat OpenShift" section.

Bare metal / VMs

Observability (Optional)

OpenTelemetry traces, metrics and logs for Self-Managed and Hybrid, with an OpenTelemetry Collector, Prometheus, Alertmanager, Tempo, Loki and Grafana. Ten Grafana dashboards and 47 alert rules cover the Gateway, Dashboard, MDCB and Developer Portal, and the collector can also send to another backend.

Deploy with an AI coding agent

This repository is an Agent Plugin (specification 1.0.0): cloning it is the install. Open the clone with Claude Code, Codex, or any conformant agent and ask for what you need, for example "deploy Tyk OSS locally", "install the self-managed stack on my cluster" or "is this values.yaml production ready?". The agent reads AGENTS.md and the skills under skills/:

To use the skills from any directory, install the repository as a plugin. It is its own marketplace for both CLIs:

# Claude Code
claude plugin marketplace add TykTechnologies/tyk-install
claude plugin install tyk-install@tyk-install

# Codex CLI
codex plugin marketplace add TykTechnologies/tyk-install
codex plugin add tyk-install@tyk-install

Without a plugin client, ./install-plugin.sh --engine claude (or codex, or both) links the skills into the agent's skills directory instead. The production, performance, security and OpenShift guidance lives as marker comments beside the settings it applies to (# PROD:, # PROD/PERFORMANCE:, # SECURITY:, # Required for deploying on RedHat OpenShift), and one script reads them so the advice cannot drift from the configuration:

python3 skills/tyk-production-readiness/scripts/profiles.py \
  audit kubernetes/helm-self-managed/values.yaml --profile prod --profile security

Utilities

Bootstrap Utility

Automated setup for Tyk deployments - creates organization, admin user, test API, policies, and Portal configuration.

Docker Utilities

Located in docker/utils/:

Repository Structure

tyk-install/
├── plugin.json            # Agent Plugins 1.0.0 manifest; this root is the plugin root
├── .claude-plugin/        # Claude Code plugin and marketplace manifests for the same root
├── .codex-plugin/, .agents/ # Codex plugin and marketplace manifests for the same root
├── AGENTS.md              # The agent contract
├── install-plugin.sh      # Optional: link the skills into an agent skills directory
├── skills/                # Agent skills: deployment planner, deployment runner, production readiness
├── baremetal/             # rpm/deb packages plus systemd
├── docker/
│   ├── oss/               # Open source Gateway and Redis, no license
│   ├── self-managed/      # Full stack Docker deployment
│   ├── getting-started/   # Self-Managed plus sample APIs and Portal content (start.sh)
│   ├── hybrid/            # Hybrid data plane Docker deployment
│   ├── mdcb/              # Self-managed control plane and data plane
│   ├── ai-studio/         # AI Studio Docker deployment
│   ├── observability/     # Optional observability stack (docker-compose.otel.yml overlays)
│   └── utils/             # Shared Docker utilities
├── kubernetes/
│   ├── helm-oss/          # Open source Gateway Helm deployment
│   ├── helm-self-managed/ # Full stack Helm deployment
│   ├── helm-hybrid/       # Hybrid data plane Helm deployment
│   ├── helm-mdcb/         # Control plane and data plane Helm values
│   ├── helm-ai-studio/    # AI Studio Helm deployment
│   ├── observability/     # Optional observability stack (Helm values, post-renderer)
│   └── standalone-operator/ # Tyk Operator deployment
├── observability/         # Dashboards, alert rules and collector config for both platforms
└── utils/
    └── bootstrap/         # Bootstrap automation utility

Resources

• Tyk Self-Managed Trial
• Tyk deployment options and licensing
• Tyk Documentation
• Tyk Helm Charts
• Release Notes
• Support