Installation

Katalon is Docker-first. For a normal start you need Docker and Docker Compose v2.

Quick Start with Docker Compose

git clone https://github.com/katalon-collections/katalon.git
cd Katalon
./install.sh --up

The installer creates the .env file, starts the containers, and displays the initial admin credentials.

Alternative: Installation via katalon-cli

For production and server instances, the katalon-cli CLI tool is available, which uses pinned release images and automates configuration management:

# Install the CLI
curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
uv tool install katalon-cli

# Interactive setup wizard (asks for version, domain, ports, and TLS)
katalon install --dir ~/katalon

# Start, stop, and check the status of an instance
katalon start --dir ~/katalon
katalon status --dir ~/katalon

By default, katalon-cli uses the /opt/katalon directory. If /opt/katalon is to be used, the directory must be created beforehand and handed over to your own user (sudo mkdir -p /opt/katalon && sudo chown $USER:$USER /opt/katalon), since katalon install runs without root privileges.

Additional CLI commands:

• katalon doctor: Checks the Docker daemon, available disk space, and port usage.
• katalon update: Performs a release update with an automatic database backup.
• katalon rollback: Restores the state prior to the last update.
• katalon logs [service]: Shows container logs.

First Login

On first start, Katalon automatically creates a superuser account. The credentials are then located in:

./first-run-credentials.txt

If the stack was started without install.sh:

docker compose exec api cat /var/lib/katalon/first-run-credentials.txt
docker compose logs api | grep -A5 "KATALON FIRST RUN"

Local URLs

Service	URL
Admin	http://localhost:3000
Portal	http://localhost:3001
API	http://localhost:8000
OpenAPI / Docs	http://localhost:8000/api/docs

In the dev Compose stack (docker compose -f docker-compose.dev.yml up), admin and portal are located at http://localhost:4000 and http://localhost:4001.

Production

For production installations with TLS certificates, a custom Nginx reverse proxy, and backup strategies, see Production Operation.