AWS

Deploy Tembo self-hosted on Amazon Web Services.

Overview

The Tembo self-hosted stack runs as a single NixOS machine. All services sit behind nginx on port 80:

Service	Path	Port (internal)
tembo-web (Next.js frontend)	/	3000
tembo-ts-api (REST 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 AMI (Amazon Machine Image) to your AWS account. You launch an EC2 instance from that AMI, 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 AMI. Book a demo with the Tembo team to get set up:

Book a Demo

Once you have a license key, contact Tembo to have the AMI shared with your AWS account. You will need to provide:

• Your license key
• Your AWS Account ID (12-digit number, found in the AWS Console under your account menu or via aws sts get-caller-identity --query Account --output text)
• Your preferred AWS region (e.g. us-east-1)

Tembo will share the AMI with your account. You will receive an AMI ID (e.g. ami-0abc1234def56789) once sharing is confirmed.

The AMI 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: Launch an EC2 Instance

Instance requirements

Resource	Minimum	Recommended
vCPUs	4	8
RAM	16 GB	32 GB
Disk	128 GB	256 GB

We recommend c5.metal for the best experience more than any other instance type. The other .metal instances are also good choices. Instances that have 8th-gen Intel Nitro will also work (Eg. m8i.*), just slower than metal. We also support virtualization. All other instance types are not fully supported.

Via the AWS Console

1. Go to EC2 > Instances > Launch instances
2. Under Application and OS Images, choose My AMIs and select the AMI shared by Tembo
3. Choose an instance type (c5.metal recommended, or m8i.xlarge or equivalent)
4. Under Key pair, select an existing key pair or create a new one — you will need this to SSH in
5. Under Network settings, create or select a security group (you will configure inbound rules in the next step)
6. Under Configure storage, set the root volume to at least 128 GiB
7. Expand Advanced details and enable Nested virtualization
8. Launch the instance

Via the AWS CLI

aws ec2 run-instances \
  --image-id <ami-id> \
  --instance-type c5.metal \
  --key-name <your-key-pair> \
  --block-device-mappings '[{"DeviceName":"/dev/xvda","Ebs":{"VolumeSize":128,"VolumeType":"gp3"}}]' \
  --tag-specifications 'ResourceType=instance,Tags=[{Key=Name,Value=tembo-self-hosted}]' \
  --cpu-options "CoreCount=<N>,ThreadsPerCore=1" \
  --metadata-options "HttpEndpoint=enabled,HttpTokens=required"

Replace CoreCount with the number of physical cores for your instance type. For c5.metal this is 48.

Nested virtualization is required for Tembo’s sandbox execution environment. Without it, agent task sandboxes will fail to start.

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Step 3: Configure the Security Group

By default, EC2 instances block all inbound traffic. Add inbound rules to allow access to Tembo:

Type	Protocol	Port	Source	Purpose
Custom TCP	TCP	80	0.0.0.0/0 (or your IP range)	Tembo web UI and API
Custom TCP	TCP	3999	Your IP	Installer / setup wizard
Custom TCP	TCP	8888	Your IP	VS Code server (config editing)
SSH	TCP	22	Your IP	SSH access

Ports 3999 and 8888 are only needed during initial setup. You can remove those rules after configuration is complete.

Via the AWS Console

1. Go to EC2 > Security Groups
2. Select the security group attached to your instance
3. Click Inbound rules > Edit inbound rules
4. Add the rules above, then save

Via the AWS CLI

# Allow HTTP on port 80
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
  --group-id <sg-id> \
  --protocol tcp \
  --port 80 \
  --cidr 0.0.0.0/0

# Allow installer, VS Code server, and SSH — restrict to your IP
aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
  --group-id <sg-id> \
  --protocol tcp \
  --port 3999 \
  --cidr <your-ip>/32

aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
  --group-id <sg-id> \
  --protocol tcp \
  --port 8888 \
  --cidr <your-ip>/32

aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
  --group-id <sg-id> \
  --protocol tcp \
  --port 22 \
  --cidr <your-ip>/32

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 4: Run the Installer and Configure the Instance

4a: Run the install workflow

Once the instance is running, open the installer in your browser:

http://<instance-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.

4b: Configure /var/lib/tembo/config.json

After the installer finishes, open the VS Code server to edit the configuration file:

http://<instance-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://<instance-public-ip>/api/",
  "frontend.url": "http://<instance-public-ip>"
}

Key	Notes
betterAuth.secret	Auto-generated on first boot if missing. Leave it if it is already set.
api.base	Must match the public URL of the API. Must end with a trailing /.
frontend.url	Defaults to http://localhost:3000, which breaks auth on a remote VM. Set this to the actual public IP or hostname.

For the full list of available configuration keys, see Environment Variables.

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 instances or add a load balancer later.

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Step 5: Verify the Install

Open a browser and navigate to:

http://<instance-public-ip>

You should see the Tembo sign-up or sign-in screen.

Check service status on the instance:

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-agent3)

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Troubleshooting

Auth 404 on sign-up

Symptom: POST http://<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://<instance-ip>       # correct
http://<instance-ip>:3000  # wrong — internal port only

If port 80 is blocked, check your EC2 security group inbound rules.

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 NixOS configuration. Contact Tembo support if this was not set in the distributed image.

Sign-in loops / cookie issues

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

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

Instance not reachable after launch

• Confirm the instance is in a Running state in the EC2 console
• Verify the security group has an inbound rule for port 80 (and port 22 for SSH)
• If using a VPC, confirm the instance is in a public subnet with an Internet Gateway attached, or that you have a route to reach it
• If using an Elastic IP, ensure it is associated with the instance

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Need Help?

If you run into any issues, contact [e-mail].