Kubernetes - Trigger

The following instructions will help you deploy Trigger.dev to Kubernetes using our official Helm chart. Make sure to read the self-hosting overview first.

As self-hosted deployments tend to have unique requirements and configurations, we don't provide specific advice for securing your deployment, scaling up, or improving reliability.

Should the burden ever get too much, we'd be happy to see you on Trigger.dev cloud where we deal with these concerns for you.

Warning: This guide alone is unlikely to result in a production-ready deployment. Security, scaling, and reliability concerns are not fully addressed here.

Requirements

Prerequisites

Kubernetes cluster 1.19+
Helm 3.8+
Kubectl with cluster access

Resources

The following are minimum requirements for running the entire stack on Kubernetes:

Cluster resources:

6+ vCPU total
12+ GB RAM total
Persistent volume support

Individual components:

Webapp: 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM
Supervisor: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM
PostgreSQL: 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM
Redis: 0.5 vCPU, 1 GB RAM
ClickHouse: 1 vCPU, 2 GB RAM
Object Storage: 0.5 vCPU, 1 GB RAM
Workers: Depending on concurrency and machine preset

These requirements scale based on your task concurrency and can be adjusted via the resources section in your values.yaml. For example:

yaml

webapp:
  resources:
    requests:
      cpu: 500m
      memory: 1Gi
    limits:
      cpu: 2000m
      memory: 4Gi

Installation

Quick start

Install with default values (for testing only):

bash

helm upgrade -n trigger --install trigger \
  oci://ghcr.io/triggerdotdev/charts/trigger \
  --version "~4.0.0" \
  --create-namespace

Access the webapp:

bash

kubectl port-forward svc/trigger-webapp 3040:3030 -n trigger

Open the dashboard: http://localhost:3040
Login with the magic link:

bash

# Check the webapp logs
kubectl logs -n trigger deployment/trigger-webapp | grep -A1 "magic link"

Configuration

Most values map directly to the environment variables documented in the webapp and supervisor environment variable overview.

Naming convention:

Environment variables use UPPER_SNAKE_CASE
Helm values use camelCase

Example mapping:

bash

# Environment variable
APP_ORIGIN=https://trigger.example.com

# Becomes Helm value
config:
  appOrigin: "https://trigger.example.com"

Default values

The following commands will display the default values:

bash

# Specific version
helm show values oci://ghcr.io/triggerdotdev/charts/trigger \
  --version "4.0.5"

# Latest v4
helm show values oci://ghcr.io/triggerdotdev/charts/trigger \
  --version "~4.0.0"

Custom values

The default values are insecure and are only suitable for testing. You will need to configure your own secrets as a bare minimum.

Create a values-custom.yaml file to override the defaults. For example:

yaml

# Generate new secrets with `openssl rand -hex 16`
# WARNING: You should probably use an existingSecret instead
secrets:
  enabled: true
  sessionSecret: "your-32-char-hex-secret-1"
  magicLinkSecret: "your-32-char-hex-secret-2"
  # ...

# Recommended: existingSecret, must contain at least the following keys:
# - SESSION_SECRET
# - MAGIC_LINK_SECRET
# - ENCRYPTION_KEY
# - MANAGED_WORKER_SECRET
# - OBJECT_STORE_ACCESS_KEY_ID
# - OBJECT_STORE_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
secrets:
  enabled: false
  existingSecret: "your-existing-secret"

# Application URLs
config:
  appOrigin: "https://trigger.example.com"
  loginOrigin: "https://trigger.example.com"
  apiOrigin: "https://trigger.example.com"

# Resource limits
webapp:
  resources:
    requests:
      cpu: 1000m
      memory: 2Gi
    limits:
      cpu: 2000m
      memory: 4Gi

supervisor:
  resources:
    requests:
      cpu: 200m
      memory: 512Mi
    limits:
      cpu: 1000m
      memory: 2Gi

Deploy with your custom values:

bash

helm upgrade -n trigger --install trigger \
  oci://ghcr.io/triggerdotdev/charts/trigger \
  --version "~4.0.0" \
  --create-namespace \
  -f values-custom.yaml

Extra env

You can set extra environment variables on all services. For example:

yaml

webapp:
  extraEnvVars:
    - name: EXTRA_ENV_VAR
      value: "extra-value"

Extra annotations

You can set extra annotations on all services. For example:

yaml

webapp:
  podAnnotations:
    "my-annotation": "my-value"

External services

You can disable the built-in services and use external services instead. The chart supports both direct configuration and existing Kubernetes secrets for secure credential management.

PostgreSQL

Direct configuration:

yaml

postgres:
  deploy: false
  external:
    databaseUrl: "postgresql://user:password@host:5432/database?schema=public"
    directUrl: "" # Optional, defaults to databaseUrl

Using existing secrets (recommended):

yaml

postgres:
  deploy: false
  external:
    existingSecret: "postgres-credentials"
    # Optional: Use secretKeys to specify the key names in the secret
    # secretKeys:
    #   databaseUrlKey: "postgres-database-url" # default
    #   directUrlKey: "postgres-direct-url"     # default

Redis

Direct configuration:

yaml

redis:
  deploy: false
  external:
    host: "my-redis.example.com"
    port: 6379
    password: "my-password"
    tls:
      enabled: true

Using existing secrets (recommended):

yaml

redis:
  deploy: false
  external:
    host: "my-redis.example.com"
    port: 6379
    existingSecret: "redis-credentials"
    # existingSecretPasswordKey: "redis-password" # default (optional)
    tls:
      enabled: true

ClickHouse

Direct configuration:

yaml

clickhouse:
  deploy: false
  external:
    host: "my-clickhouse.example.com"
    port: 8123
    username: "my-username"
    password: "my-password"

Using existing secrets (recommended):

yaml

clickhouse:
  deploy: false
  external:
    host: "my-clickhouse.example.com"
    port: 8123
    username: "my-username"
    existingSecret: "clickhouse-credentials"
    # existingSecretKey: "clickhouse-password" # default (optional)

S3 Object Storage

Direct configuration:

yaml

minio:
  deploy: false
s3:
  external:
    endpoint: "https://s3.amazonaws.com"
    accessKeyId: "my-access-key"
    secretAccessKey: "my-secret-key"

Using existing secrets (recommended):

yaml

minio:
  deploy: false
s3:
  external:
    endpoint: "https://s3.amazonaws.com"
    existingSecret: "s3-credentials"
    # Optional: Use secretKeys to specify the key names in the secret
    # secretKeys:
    #   accessKeyIdKey: "access-key-id"     # default
    #   secretAccessKeyKey: "secret-access-key" # default

PostgreSQL SSL with custom CA certificates

When connecting to PostgreSQL instances that require custom CA certificates (such as AWS RDS with SSL verification), you can mount the CA certificate as a volume and configure the webapp to use it:

yaml

postgres:
  deploy: false
  external:
    databaseUrl: "postgresql://user:[email protected]:5432/triggerdb?schema=public&sslmode=require"
    # Alternatively, use an existing secret
    existingSecret: "postgres-credentials"
    # secretKeys:
    #   databaseUrlKey: "postgres-database-url" # default
  connection:
    sslMode: "require"

# Webapp configuration with SSL CA certificate
webapp:
  extraEnvVars:
    - name: NODE_EXTRA_CA_CERTS
      value: "/etc/ssl/certs/postgres-ca.crt"

  extraVolumes:
    - name: postgres-ca-cert
      secret:
        secretName: postgres-ca-secret
        items:
          - key: ca.crt
            path: postgres-ca.crt

  extraVolumeMounts:
    - name: postgres-ca-cert
      mountPath: /etc/ssl/certs
      readOnly: true

Benefits:

No plaintext credentials in values.yaml or Helm releases
Complete DATABASE_URL stored securely in Kubernetes secrets
Compatible with secret management tools (External Secrets Operator, etc.)
Follows Kubernetes security best practices

Worker token

When using the default bootstrap configuration, worker creation and authentication is handled automatically. The webapp generates a worker token and makes it available to the supervisor via a shared volume.

Bootstrap (default)

yaml

webapp:
  bootstrap:
    enabled: true
    workerGroupName: "bootstrap"

Manual

If you need to set up workers separately or use a custom token:

Get the worker token from the webapp logs:

bash

kubectl logs deployment/trigger-webapp -n trigger | grep -A15 "Worker Token"

Create a secret with the token:

bash

kubectl create secret generic worker-token \
  --from-literal=token=tr_wgt_your_token_here \
  -n trigger

Configure the supervisor to use the secret:

yaml

supervisor:
  bootstrap:
    enabled: false
    workerToken:
      secret:
        name: "worker-token"
        key: "token"

Registry setup

See the Docker registry setup for conceptual information. The configuration is specified in your values.yaml:

yaml

# Use external registry (recommended)
registry:
  deploy: false
  # Part of deployment image ref, for example: your-registry.example.com/your-company/proj_123:20250625.1.prod
  repositoryNamespace: "your-company"
  external:
    host: "your-registry.example.com"
    port: 5000
    auth:
      enabled: true
      username: "your-username"
      password: "your-password"

<Note> The internal registry (`registry.external: false`) is experimental and requires proper TLS setup and additional cluster configuration. Use an external registry for production. </Note>

Object storage

See the Docker object storage setup for conceptual information. The defaults will use built-in MinIO, but you can use an external S3-compatible storage. The configuration is specified in your values.yaml:

yaml

# Use external S3-compatible storage
minio:
  deploy: false
  external:
    url: "https://s3.amazonaws.com"
    # or: "https://your-minio.com:9000"

# Configure credentials
secrets:
  objectStore:
    accessKeyId: "admin"
    secretAccessKey: "very-safe-password"

Authentication

Authentication options are identical to the Docker-based installation. The configuration is specified in your values.yaml:

GitHub OAuth:

yaml

webapp:
  extraEnvVars:
    - name: AUTH_GITHUB_CLIENT_ID
      value: "your-github-client-id"
    - name: AUTH_GITHUB_CLIENT_SECRET
      value: "your-github-client-secret"

Email authentication (Resend):

yaml

webapp:
  extraEnvVars:
    - name: EMAIL_TRANSPORT
      value: "resend"
    - name: FROM_EMAIL
      value: "[email protected]"
    - name: REPLY_TO_EMAIL
      value: "[email protected]"
    - name: RESEND_API_KEY
      value: "your-resend-api-key"

Restricting access:

yaml

webapp:
  extraEnvVars:
    - name: WHITELISTED_EMAILS
      value: "^(user1@company\\.com|user2@company\\.com)$"

Version locking

You can lock versions in two ways:

Helm chart version (recommended):

bash

# Pin to a specific version for production
helm upgrade -n trigger --install trigger \
  oci://ghcr.io/triggerdotdev/charts/trigger \
  --version "4.0.5"

# The app version will be different from the chart version
# This is the version of the Trigger.dev webapp and supervisor
# ..and should always match your Trigger.dev CLI version
helm show chart \
  oci://ghcr.io/triggerdotdev/charts/trigger \
  --version "4.0.5" | grep appVersion

Specific image tags:

yaml

webapp:
  image:
    tag: "v4.0.0"

supervisor:
  image:
    tag: "v4.0.0"

The chart version's appVersion field determines the default image tags. Newer image tags may be incompatible with older chart versions and vice versa.

Troubleshooting

Check logs:

bash

# Webapp logs
kubectl logs deployment/trigger-webapp -n trigger -f

# Supervisor logs
kubectl logs deployment/trigger-supervisor -n trigger -f

# All pods
kubectl logs -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=trigger -n trigger -f

Check pod status:

bash

kubectl get pods -n trigger
kubectl describe pod <pod-name> -n trigger

Start from scratch:

bash

# Delete the release
helm uninstall trigger -n trigger

# Delete persistent volumes (optional)
# WARNING: This will delete all your data!
kubectl delete pvc -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=trigger -n trigger

# Delete the namespace (optional)
kubectl delete namespace trigger

Common issues:

Magic links not working: Check webapp logs for email delivery errors
Deploy fails: Verify registry access and authentication
Pods stuck pending: Describe the pod and check the events
Worker token issues: Check webapp and supervisor logs for errors
Deploy fails with ERROR: schema "graphile_worker" does not exist: See the Docker troubleshooting section for details on resolving PostgreSQL SSL certificate issues that prevent Graphile Worker migrations.

See the Docker troubleshooting section for more information.

CLI usage

See the Docker CLI usage section, the commands are identical regardless of deployment method.

CI / GitHub Actions

When running the CLI in a CI environment, your login profiles won't be available. Instead, you can use the TRIGGER_API_URL and TRIGGER_ACCESS_TOKEN environment variables to point at your self-hosted instance and authenticate.

For more detailed instructions, see the GitHub Actions guide.

Telemetry

By default, the Trigger.dev webapp sends telemetry data to our servers. This data is used to improve the product and is not shared with third parties. To disable telemetry, set in your values.yaml:

yaml

telemetry:
  enabled: false