kong

Getting Started

If you prefer to use a cloud-hosted Kong, you can sign up for a free trial of Kong Konnect and get started in minutes. If not, you can follow the instructions below to get started with Kong on your own infrastructure.

Let’s test drive Kong by adding authentication to an API in under 5 minutes.

We suggest using the docker-compose distribution via the instructions below, but there is also a docker installation procedure if you’d prefer to run the Kong Gateway in DB-less mode.

Whether you’re running in the cloud, on bare metal, or using containers, you can find every supported distribution on our official installation page.

1. To start, clone the Docker repository and navigate to the compose folder.

  $ git clone https://github.com/Kong/docker-kong
  $ cd docker-kong/compose/

2. Start the Gateway stack using:

  $ KONG_DATABASE=postgres docker-compose --profile database up

The Gateway is now available on the following ports on localhost:

• :8000 - send traffic to your service via Kong
• :8001 - configure Kong using Admin API or via decK
• :8002 - access Kong's management Web UI (Kong Manager) on localhost:8002

Next, follow the quick start guide to tour the Gateway features.

Getting started with AI Gateway for LLM and MCP

If you would like to get started with Kong AI Gateway capabilities including LLM and MCP features, please refer to the official AI documentation.

License

Copyright 2016-2026 Kong Inc.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

   https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.