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Running on a single node

Create your node on the cloud. For example, on AWS, you can create an EC2 instance. Make sure that the instance has enough memory and disk space to run Helicone. For example, you can use the m5.xlarge instance type on AWS. Recommended Requirements
  • 4 vCPUs
  • 16 GB RAM
  • 100 GB disk space
The simplest approach uses the pre-built helicone-all-in-one Docker image.

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Within your remote machine

Install Docker Run the container with your server’s public IP: 
export PUBLIC_URL="http://YOUR_IP:3000"
export JAWN_URL="http://YOUR_IP:8585"
export S3_URL="http://YOUR_IP:9080"

docker run -d \
  --name helicone \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  -p 8585:8585 \
  -p 9080:9080 \
  -e SITE_URL="$PUBLIC_URL" \
  -e BETTER_AUTH_URL="$PUBLIC_URL" \
  -e BETTER_AUTH_SECRET="$(openssl rand -base64 32)" \
  -e NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL="$PUBLIC_URL" \
  -e NEXT_PUBLIC_HELICONE_JAWN_SERVICE="$JAWN_URL" \
  -e NEXT_PUBLIC_IS_ON_PREM=true \
  -e S3_ENDPOINT="$S3_URL" \
  helicone/helicone-all-in-one:latest
See the Docker guide for environment variables, user setup, and troubleshooting.

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Adding HTTPS through a reverse proxy (optional)

If you want to serve Helicone through a custom domain with HTTPS, you’ll need a reverse proxy. Caddy is one option that provides automatic HTTPS with Let’s Encrypt certificates. You can also use nginx, Traefik, or any other reverse proxy.
  1. Point a domain to your server’s IP (A record), e.g., helicone-api.yourdomain.com
  2. Install Caddy: 
curl -L "https://github.com/caddyserver/caddy/releases/latest/download/caddy_linux_amd64.tar.gz" -o caddy.tar.gz
tar -xzf caddy.tar.gz caddy
sudo mv caddy /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/caddy
  1. Create /etc/caddy/Caddyfile:
helicone-api.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8585
}
  1. Run Caddy:
sudo mkdir -p /var/log/caddy /etc/caddy

sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/caddy.service > /dev/null <<'EOF'
[Unit]
Description=Caddy web server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=notify
User=root
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/caddy run --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
ExecReload=/usr/local/bin/caddy reload --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile
AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable caddy
sudo systemctl start caddy
Now you can access the API via https://helicone-api.yourdomain.com.

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Option 2: Build from Source

For more control, you can build and run Helicone from source using Docker Compose.

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Within your remote machine

Install Docker Step 1: Clone the repo 
git clone https://github.com/Helicone/helicone.git
Step 2: Run docker compose 
cd helicone/docker
cp .env.example .env
./helicone-compose.sh helicone up

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Accessing via SSH tunnel

Assuming you have your ssh config setup like this: 
Host helicone
    HostName 1.1.1.1
    User ubuntu
    IdentityFile ~/Desktop/secret.pem
Test it by running this command on your localhost: 
ssh -N \
  -L 3000:localhost:3000 \
  -L 8989:localhost:8989 \
  -L 8000:localhost:8000 \
  -L 8787:localhost:8787 \
  -L 8788:localhost:8788 \
  helicone
Now you can access the Helicone UI at http://localhost:3000 You can add users by going here: http://localhost:8989/project/default/auth/users and clicking “Add User”. After you add a user, you can connect to the dashboard at http://localhost:3000/signin The proxy is setup at localhost:8787 for OpenAI. You can test it works by adding a new key on the http://localhost:3000 and then running this command on your localhost: 
# Test command
curl localhost:8787/helicone/test

# Example log command
curl --request POST \
    --url http://localhost:8787/v1/chat/completions \
    --header "Authorization: Bearer <<YOUR_OPENAI_API_KEY>>" \
    --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
    --header "Helicone-Auth: Bearer <<YOUR_HELICONE_API_KEY>>" \
    --data '{
        "model": "gpt-4o-mini",
        "messages": [
            {
                "role": "system",
                "content": "Say Hello!"
            }
        ],
        "temperature": 1,
        "max_tokens": 30
 }'
You should see all the data show up on Helicone.

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Production Checklist

The next steps before becoming production ready are:
  1. Follow the instructions here like
    • Change the default password
    • Add a custom domain
    • Add SSL
    • Add a SMTP server
    • Generate API keys
  2. Add a load balancer in front of the server
    • Add HTTPS to web and workers
    • Change public variables for our backend routes. (NEXT_PUBLIC_BASE_PATH, SUPABASE_PUBLIC_URL, API_EXTERNAL_URL)
  3. Add a database backup strategy and change the volume to a persistent volume