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Full development environment

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, ensure you have the following tools installed:

1. Setting Up Required Services​

authentik depends on several external services:

The easiest way to set up these services is using the provided Docker Compose configuration:

docker compose -f scripts/docker-compose.yml up -d

Option B: Using local installations​

Alternatively, you can install and run these services directly on your system.

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If using locally installed databases, ensure the PostgreSQL credentials provided to authentik have CREATE DATABASE and DROP DATABASE permissions, because authentik creates temporary databases for testing.

2. Installing Platform-Specific Dependencies​

Install the required native dependencies on macOS using Homebrew:

brew install \
libxmlsec1 \
libpq \
pkg-config \
uv \
postgresql \
redis \
node@24 \
golangci-lint \
krb5

3. Set up the backend​

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All make commands must be executed from the root directory of your local authentik Git repository.

Install dependencies​

Install all required JavaScript and Python dependencies and create an isolated Python environment:

make install

Generate development configuration​

Create a local configuration file that uses the local databases for development:

make gen-dev-config

Initialize the database​

Run all migrations with the following command:

make migrate
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If you ever want to start over, use make dev-reset which drops and restores the authentik PostgreSQL database to the state after make migrate.

Understanding the architecture​

authentik is primarily a Django application running under gunicorn, proxied by a Go application that serves static files. Most functions and classes have type hints and docstrings. For better code navigation, we recommend installing a Python Type-checking Extension in your IDE.

4. Set up the frontend​

Even if you're not planning to develop the UI, you need to build the frontend as no compiled bundle is included by default.

Building the UI​

Live development mode​

For real-time feedback as you make changes:

make web-watch

Or instead, if you just want to build it once:

make web-build

5. Running authentik​

Now that the backend and frontend have been set up and built, you can start authentik.

Start the server:

make run-server

In a separate process, start the worker:

make run-worker
info

The very first time a worker runs, it might need some time to clear the initial task queue. Adjust AUTHENTIK_WORKER__THREADS as required.

Both processes need to run to get a fully functioning authentik development environment.

authentik will be accessible at http://localhost:9000.

Initial setup​

To set a password for the default admin user (akadmin):

  1. Navigate to http://localhost:9000/if/flow/initial-setup/ in your browser.
  2. Follow the prompts to set up your admin account.

Hot-reloading​

When AUTHENTIK_DEBUG is set to true (the default for the development environment), the authentik server automatically reloads whenever changes are made to the code. However, due to instabilities in the reloading process of the worker, that behavior is turned off for the worker. You can enable code reloading in the worker by manually running uv run ak worker --watch.

End-to-End (E2E) Setup​

Start the E2E test services with the following command:

docker compose -f tests/e2e/docker-compose.yml up -d

You can then view the Selenium Chrome browser via http://localhost:7900/ using the password: secret.

Alternatively, you can connect directly via VNC on port 5900 using the password: secret.

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When using Docker Desktop, host networking needs to be enabled via Docker Settings > Resources > Network > Enable host networking.

6. Contributing code​

Before submitting a pull request​

Ensure your code meets our quality standards by running:

  1. Code linting:

    make lint-fix
    make lint

  2. Generate updated API documentation:

    make gen

  3. Format frontend code:

    make web

  4. Run tests:

    make test

You can run all these checks at once with:

make all

Submitting your changes​

After your code passes all checks, submit a pull request on GitHub. Be sure to:

  • Provide a clear description of your changes
  • Reference any related issues
  • Follow our code style guidelines
  • Update any related documentation
  • Include tests for your changes where appropriate

Thank you for contributing to authentik!