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Lightdash is open-source, so you can deploy and operate your own instance instead of using Lightdash Cloud. This covers your install paths — Docker Compose, Kubernetes/Helm, or an on-prem enterprise setup — plus the production deployment checklist for running it at scale. You’ll also find how to upgrade between versions and how to customize your deployment: SSO, SMTP, external storage, logging, and other environment configuration. For a security review, start with Data flows and telemetry — it lists exactly what stays inside your deployment, what leaves it, and how to control every outbound destination.

Lightdash Cloud vs. Self-Hosted

What you get and what you take on when you choose Lightdash Cloud or self-hosting

Enterprise on-prem setup

Deploy FedRAMP-ready Lightdash Enterprise Edition on premises on your own infrastructure

Production deployment checklist

What to configure for an enterprise-grade self-hosted deployment with the official Helm chart

Data flows and telemetry in self-hosted Lightdash

What data stays inside your infrastructure, what leaves it, where it goes, and how to control it

Environment variables

Complete reference of the environment variables that configure a Lightdash deployment

Install

Self-Host Lightdash

Deploy Lightdash on Kubernetes with the official Helm chart, from minimum config to production

Self-host Lightdash using docker compose

Run a minimal Lightdash instance on your own machine with Docker Compose

Upgrading

Upgrading Lightdash

How Lightdash versioning works and when to upgrade a self-hosted deployment

Upgrade safety

Read the release-safety artifact, check an upgrade span, and pick the right deployment strategy

Upgrade runbook

Upgrade sequences for Kubernetes, docker compose, and automated deployments

Connect services

Configure a Github integration for self-hosted Lightdash

Create a GitHub app and wire its credentials into your instance so Lightdash can write to dbt repos

Configure a Slack integration for self-hosted Lightdash

Create a Slack app and wire its credentials into your instance for unfurls and deliveries

Configure a Google Sheets integration for self-hosted Lightdash

Enable Google Sheets uploads and scheduled deliveries on a self-hosted Lightdash instance

Infrastructure

Configure Lightdash to use an external database

Point Lightdash at a managed PostgreSQL database with the settings it needs

Configure Lightdash to use external storage

Set up the required S3-compatible bucket on GCP, AWS, Azure, or MinIO

Run a dedicated scheduler worker

Run scheduled deliveries on a dedicated worker so heavy exports can't starve the API

Add headless browser on self-hosting

Run the headless browser that renders chart and dashboard images for email and Slack deliveries

Sandboxes

How Lightdash isolates LLM-generated code, and how to configure the sandbox provider

Secure Lightdash with HTTPS

Terminate HTTPS in front of a self-hosted Lightdash instance with a load balancer, ingress, or proxy

Configure Prometheus metrics for self-hosted Lightdash

Expose Prometheus metrics for instance health, plus custom counters driven by application events

Access and licensing

Configure Lightdash to use passwords or SSO for authentication

Enable password login and SSO with Okta, Google, Azure AD, OneLogin, or any OIDC provider

Organization roadmap

See the feature requests your organization has raised and where each one stands

Enterprise features

AI agents

Enable AI Analyst and AI agents on a self-hosted Lightdash instance

Data apps

Configure a self-hosted Lightdash instance to run data apps

AI writeback

Enable AI writeback on a self-hosted Lightdash instance

MCP

Enable the Model Context Protocol server on a self-hosted Lightdash instance

Pre-aggregates

Enable pre-aggregate query routing on a self-hosted Lightdash instance

NATS workers

Warehouse workers

Configure and scale dedicated warehouse query worker pods

Pre-aggregate workers

Configure and scale pre-aggregate worker pods for materialization and DuckDB query serving