​
Installing Trieve on GCP (GKE)

Things you need

  • Domain name
  • An allowance for at least 8vCPU for G and VT instances
  • helm cli
  • google cloud cli
  • kubectl
  • k9s (optional)

​
Clone the Trieve repository

git clone https://github.com/devflowinc/trieve.git
cd trieve

​
Login to GCP

gcloud auth login

​
Provision Terraform

gcloud should be configured with your credentials chosen. Run the following commands to create the GKE cluster:

cp terraform/gcloud/vars.tfvars.example terraform/gcloud/vars.tfvars
# Edit terraform/gcloud/vars.tfvars with your project id, cluster name, region, and zone
cd terraform/gcloud
terraform init
terraform apply -var vars.tfvars

​
Login to the cluster

Set up your kubeconfig to point to the new cluster

gcloud container clusters get-credentials --region us-west2-a trievegcp

​
Install Ingress nginx + Cert Manager

Ingress-nginx + Cert manager is how we will expose the trieve services to the internet. Feel free to use whatever ingress controller you are comfortable with.


# To install ingress-nginx
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/kubernetes/ingress-nginx/controller-v1.12.0-beta.0/deploy/static/provider/cloud/deploy.yaml
# To install cert-manager
kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.16.2/cert-manager.yaml
# To install ClusterIssuer
kubectl apply -f https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devflowinc/trieve-helm/refs/heads/main/charts/trieve/test-production/cluster-issuer.yaml

​
Install Trieve

​
Download values.yaml file

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/devflowinc/trieve-helm/refs/heads/main/charts/trieve/values.yaml

For full configuration options, the values.yaml contains comments and examples. More information can be found in the Trieve Helm Chart repository.

​
Modify domain names for ingresses

values.yaml
domains:
  dashboard:
    disabled: false
    host: dashboard.yourdomain.com
    class: nginx
    # Annotations for the ingress
    # Annotations for the service that the ingress points to
    annotations:
      kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
      acme.cert-manager.io/http01-edit-in-place: "true"
      cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: "letsencrypt"
      nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect: "true"
    tls:
      - hosts:
          - dashboard.yourdomain.com
        secretName: dashboard-domain
    serviceAnnotations: {}
  server:
    disabled: false
    host: api.yourdomain.com
    class: nginx
    annotations:
      kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
      acme.cert-manager.io/http01-edit-in-place: "true"
      cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: "letsencrypt"
      nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect: "true"
    tls:
      - hosts:
          - api.yourdomain.com
        secretName: api-domain
    serviceAnnotations: {}
  search:
    disabled: false
    host: search.yourdomain.com
    class: nginx
    annotations:
      kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
      acme.cert-manager.io/http01-edit-in-place: "true"
      cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: "letsencrypt"
      nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect: "true"
    tls:
      - hosts:
          - search.yourdomain.com
        secretName: search-domain
    serviceAnnotations: {}
  chat:
    disabled: false
    host: chat.yourdomain.com
    class: nginx
    annotations:
      kubernetes.io/ingress.class: nginx
      acme.cert-manager.io/http01-edit-in-place: "true"
      cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: "letsencrypt"
      nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/ssl-redirect: "true"
    tls:
      - hosts:
          - chat.yourdomain.com
        secretName: chat-domain
    serviceAnnotations: {}

## ...

config:
## For the frontend to communicate
  vite:
    apiHost: https://api.yourdomain.com/api
    searchUiUrl: https://search.yourdomain.com
    chatUiUrl: https://chat.yourdomain.com
    dashboardUrl: https://dashboard.yourdomain.com

## For the backend oidc server
  oidc:
    issuerUrl: "https://auth.yourdomain.com/realms/trieve"
    authRedirectUrl: "https://auth.yourdomain.com/realms/trieve/protocol/openid-connect/auth"

Install the helm chart. Ensure it is installed twice

helm repo add trieve https://devflowinc.github.io/trieve-helm/
helm repo update
helm upgrade -i -f helm/values.yaml trieve-local trieve/trieve
helm upgrade -i -f helm/values.yaml trieve-local trieve/trieve

You will need to install the helm chart twice to ensure the crds are installed and ConfigMap’s are updated properly.

​
Verify the installation

After installing, kubectl get deployments should look like this.

NAME                READY   UP-TO-DATE   AVAILABLE   AGE
bktree-worker       1/1     1            1           14m
chat                1/1     1            1           14m
crawl-worker        1/1     1            1           14m
dashboard           1/1     1            1           14m
delete-worker       1/1     1            1           14m
group-worker        1/1     1            1           14m
ingest              10/10   10           10          14m
keycloak-operator   1/1     1            1           46m
redis               1/1     1            1           46m
search              1/1     1            1           14m
server              3/3     1            0           14m
sync-qdrant         0/0     0            0           14m
word-worker         1/1     1            1           14m

​
Set Ingress

​
Get Ingress ip address

kubectl get ingress

You will get an output like this:

ingress-chat                gce    chat.yourdomain.com        4.157.193.10   80, 443   7m43s
ingress-dashboard           gce    dashboard.yourdomain.com   4.157.193.10   80, 443   7m43s
ingress-keycloak            gce    auth.yourdomain.com        4.157.193.10   80, 443   20m
ingress-search              gce    search.yourdomain.com      4.157.193.10   80, 443   7m43s
ingress-server              gce    api.yourdomain.com         4.157.193.10   80, 443   7m43s

​
Add A records

Add A records to your domain registrar with the IP address of the ingress.

chat.yourdomain.com      -> 4.157.193.10 # Example IP
dashboard.yourdomain.com -> 4.157.193.10 # Example IP
search.yourdomain.com    -> 4.157.193.10 # Example IP
api.yourdomain.com       -> 4.157.193.10 # Example IP

Ensure you run helm upgrade -i -f helm/values.yaml trieve-local trieve/trieve after making changes. to apply them.

​
Post Installation

​
Setup Keycloak redirect urls

  • Navigate to auth.yourdomain.com
  • Log in using the default credentials:
    • Username: admin
    • Password: password
  • Switch the Realm from “master” to “trieve”
  • Navigate to Clients → trieve → Settings
  • Configure the Valid Redirect URIs and Valid Post Logout Redirect URIs (ensure it is https)

​
Verify Your Installation

Follow these steps to confirm your Trieve instance is working correctly:

1

Register Your First User

Navigate to dashboard.yourdomain.com in your browser. You’ll be prompted to register a new user account since this is a fresh installation.

2

Create a Dataset and Add Sample Data

Once logged in, create your first dataset and populate it with some example data. This will help you test the core functionality of your Trieve instance.

3

Verify Data Processing

Check the admin event log to ensure that chunks are being created successfully from your uploaded data. This confirms that the ingestion pipeline is working properly.

4

Test Search Functionality

Navigate to search.yourdomain.com and perform a test search query using the data you just uploaded. This verifies that the search engine is functioning correctly.

5

Review Search Analytics

Return to dashboard.yourdomain.com and examine your search analytics to confirm that queries are being tracked and analyzed properly.

​
🚀 Congratulations! You’re all set!

You now have a fully functional Trieve instance running on GCP. Your self-hosted search infrastructure is ready to handle production workloads.

​
📚 Next Steps