Enable HTTPS on the Kestra UI with SSL/TLS certificates

Table of Contents

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Configure secure access to the Kestra UI via HTTPS. The right approach depends on your deployment type:

Approach	Best for	Cert management
Caddy reverse proxy	Docker/VM deployments, local dev	Automatic (Let’s Encrypt or local CA)
Kubernetes Ingress + cert-manager	Kubernetes deployments	Automatic via cert-manager
Micronaut SSL config	Air-gapped or no reverse proxy option	Manual (bring your own certs)
Self-signed certificates	Local testing only	Manual

Why use SSL/TLS encryption

Adding TLS encryption to your environment provides the following benefits:

Data is encrypted in transit, preventing sensitive data from being intercepted in “man-in-the-middle” attacks.
TLS adds a layer of trust by ensuring users know the URL they access is genuine (e.g., https://mycompany.kestra.com/ui is verified as an internal site).

For further details, see Why use HTTPS? on the Cloudflare documentation.

Using Caddy as a reverse proxy

Caddy is a reverse proxy that manages HTTPS automatically. For public domains it obtains and renews Let’s Encrypt certificates without any manual steps; for local development it generates a local CA and prompts once for system trust.

Local development (macOS)

This setup gives multiple local Kestra instances clean HTTPS URLs (e.g. https://oss, https://ee) with a single local CA prompt.

Install Caddy:
```
brew install caddy
```

Create a ~/Caddyfile with one reverse_proxy block per Kestra instance (adjust ports to match your instances):

oss {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

oss-dev {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8081
}

ee {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8082
}

ee-dev {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8083
}

Run Caddy:
```
sudo caddy run --config ~/Caddyfile
```
Caddy generates a local CA on first run and prompts once to trust it in the macOS Keychain. After that, all configured hostnames are available over HTTPS with no browser warnings.

For the short hostnames (e.g. oss, ee) to resolve, add them to /etc/hosts:

127.0.0.1 oss oss-dev ee ee-dev

Production (public domain)

For a publicly accessible Kestra instance, point your domain at the server and Caddy handles certificate issuance and renewal automatically via Let’s Encrypt.

kestra.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

Run Caddy as a background service so it persists across reboots:

sudo caddy start --config /etc/caddy/Caddyfile

With this setup, Kestra itself runs on plain HTTP internally (localhost:8080) and Caddy terminates TLS at the edge — no changes to Kestra’s Micronaut SSL configuration are needed.

Kestra uses WebSockets for real-time execution log streaming. Caddy’s reverse_proxy directive supports WebSocket upgrades by default, so no extra configuration is required.

Creating self-signed certificates

To get started in lower environments, create self-signed certificates using the OpenSSL library. For more detail on examining certificates and keys, see this Micronaut article.

While self-signed certificates encrypt traffic, they are considered unsuitable for production usage. They are deemed untrustworthy, as they do not come from a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) such as Let’s Encrypt. Follow your organization’s best practices when choosing a CA provider.

## Create a folder which will be later mounted to the kestra container
mkdir -p /app/ssl
cd /app/ssl

## Create CA in PEM format along with private key
openssl req -x509 -sha256 -days 365 -newkey rsa:4096 \
  -keyout cacert.key -out cacert.pem \
  -subj '/CN=example.kestra.com/C=IE/O=kestra' \
  -passout pass:changeit

## Create certificate signing request
openssl req -newkey rsa:4096 \
  -keyout server.key -out server.csr \
  -subj '/CN=example.kestra.com/C=IE/O=kestra' \
 -passout pass:changeit

## Create the server configuration which will be used to sign the certificate
cat <<< 'authorityKeyIdentifier=keyid,issuer
basicConstraints=CA:FALSE
subjectAltName = @alt_names
[alt_names]
DNS.1 = localhost' > server.conf

## sign certificate
openssl x509 -req -CA cacert.pem -CAkey cacert.key \
        -in server.csr -out server.pem -days 365 \
        -CAcreateserial -extfile server.conf \
        -passin pass:changeit

## Create server.p12
openssl pkcs12 -export -out server.p12 -name "localhost" \
        -inkey server.key -in server.pem \
        -passin pass:changeit \
        -passout pass:changeit

## Create keystore.p12 with JDK keytool
keytool -importkeystore -srckeystore server.p12 \
        -srcstoretype pkcs12 -destkeystore keystore.p12 \
        -deststoretype pkcs12 \
        -deststorepass changeit -srcstorepass changeit

## Create truststore.jks
keytool -import -trustcacerts -noprompt -alias ca \
        -ext san=dns:localhost,ip:127.0.0.1 \
        -file cacert.pem -keystore truststore.jks \
        -storepass changeit -keypass changeit

Micronaut SSL configuration

Configure HTTPS through the micronaut settings in the Observability and Networking configuration.

Ensure that you expose the secure port of the connection if different from the default port.

  kestra:
    image: registry.kestra.io/docker/kestra:latest
    pull_policy: always
    user: "root"
    command: server standalone --worker-thread=128
    volumes:
      - kestra-data:/app/storage
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - tmp-kestra:/tmp/kestra-wd
      - /app/ssl:/app/ssl
    ports:
      - "8443:8443"
    environment:
      KESTRA_CONFIGURATION: |
        micronaut:
          security:
            x509:
              enabled: false
          ssl:
            enabled: true
          server:
            ssl:
              port: 8443
              enabled: true
              clientAuthentication: want
              keyStore:
                path: file:/app/ssl/server.p12
                password: changeit
                type: PKCS12
              trustStore:
                path: file:/app/ssl/truststore.jks
                password: changeit
                type: JKS
        datasources:
          postgres:
            url: jdbc:postgresql://postgres:5432/kestra
            driver-class-name: org.postgresql.Driver
            username: kestra
            password: k3str4
        kestra:
          server:
            basic-auth:
              enabled: false
              username: "admin@kestra.io" # it must be a valid email address
              password: kestra
          repository:
            type: postgres
          storage:
            type: local
            local:
              base-path: "/app/storage"
          queue:
            type: postgres
          tasks:
            tmp-dir:
              path: /tmp/kestra-wd/tmp
          ports:
            - "8443:8443"

Outbound SSL configuration

If Kestra tasks make outbound calls to services that require SSL, configure the JVM to trust your certificates by setting the following options in the JAVA_OPTS environment variable in your Observability and Networking configuration:

JAVA_OPTS: "-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/app/ssl/truststore.jks -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=changeit"

The following example shows the full service configuration with JAVA_OPTS set:

  kestra:
    image: registry.kestra.io/docker/kestra:latest
    pull_policy: always
    user: "root"
    command: server standalone --worker-thread=128
    volumes:
      - kestra-data:/app/storage
      - /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock
      - tmp-kestra:/tmp/kestra-wd
      - /app/ssl:/app/ssl
    ports:
      - "8443:8443"
    environment:
      JAVA_OPTS: "-Djavax.net.ssl.trustStore=/app/ssl/truststore.jks -Djavax.net.ssl.trustStorePassword=changeit"
      KESTRA_CONFIGURATION: |
        micronaut:
          security:
            x509:
              enabled: false
          ssl:
            enabled: true
          server:
            ssl:
              port: 8443
              enabled: true
              clientAuthentication: want
              keyStore:
                path: file:/app/ssl/server.p12
                password: changeit
                type: PKCS12
              trustStore:
                path: file:/app/ssl/truststore.jks
                password: changeit
                type: JKS
        datasources:
          postgres:
            url: jdbc:postgresql://postgres:5432/kestra
            driver-class-name: org.postgresql.Driver
            username: kestra
            password: k3str4
        kestra:
          server:
            basic-auth:
              enabled: false
              username: "admin@kestra.io" # it must be a valid email address
              password: kestra
          repository:
            type: postgres
          storage:
            type: local
            local:
              base-path: "/app/storage"
          queue:
            type: postgres
          tasks:
            tmp-dir:
              path: /tmp/kestra-wd/tmp
          ports:
            - "8443:8443"

Enabling CSRF protection

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) is an attack where a malicious website or email tricks a user’s browser into performing unwanted actions on a trusted site while authenticated.

CSRF protection requires TLS/SSL to be enabled on your instance. Once TLS is configured, add the following to your configuration file:

micronaut:
  security:
    csrf:
      enabled: true

This setting enables CSRF protection on all endpoints that reach /api/.*.

Configuring SSL with Kubernetes

For Kubernetes deployments, you can enable HTTPS either by configuring TLS at the Ingress level or by using self-signed certificates at the application level.

Using ingress with TLS termination (recommended for production)

Most cloud providers expect TLS termination at the ingress controller. Here’s how to configure HTTPS using Let’s Encrypt certificates:

Install cert-manager. To use a different version, see available releases on GitHub:

kubectl apply -f https://github.com/cert-manager/cert-manager/releases/download/v1.17.1/cert-manager.yaml

Create a Let’s Encrypt issuer (replace your-email@example.com):

apiVersion: cert-manager.io/v1
kind: ClusterIssuer
metadata:
  name: letsencrypt-prod
spec:
  acme:
    server: https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory
    email: your-email@example.com
    privateKeySecretRef:
      name: letsencrypt-prod
    solvers:
    - http01:
        ingress:
          class: nginx # Update for your ingress controller

Configure Ingress with TLS (Azure AKS example):

apiVersion: networking.k8s.io/v1
kind: Ingress
metadata:
  name: kestra-ingress
  annotations:
    cert-manager.io/cluster-issuer: letsencrypt-prod
    nginx.ingress.kubernetes.io/backend-protocol: "HTTPS"
spec:
  tls:
    - hosts:
        - kestra.yourdomain.com
      secretName: kestra-tls
  rules:
    - host: kestra.yourdomain.com
      http:
        paths:
          - path: /
            pathType: Prefix
            backend:
              service:
                name: kestra-service
                port:
                  number: 80

Using self-signed certificates (for testing)

Generate certificates using the OpenSSL commands in the Creating self-signed certificates section above.

Create TLS secret:

kubectl create secret tls kestra-tls \
  --cert=server.pem \
  --key=server.key

Reference the secret in your Ingress:

spec:
  tls:
    - hosts:
        - kestra.yourdomain.com
      secretName: kestra-tls

Application-level SSL configuration

For environments where ingress TLS termination isn’t available:

Create secret with SSL files:

kubectl create secret generic kestra-ssl \
  --from-file=keystore.p12 \
  --from-file=truststore.jks

Configure Kestra deployment:

env:
  - name: KESTRA_CONFIGURATION
    value: |
      micronaut:
        server:
          ssl:
            enabled: true
            port: 8443
            keyStore:
              path: file:/app/ssl/keystore.p12
              password: changeit
              type: PKCS12
volumeMounts:
  - name: ssl-secret
    mountPath: "/app/ssl"
volumes:
  - name: ssl-secret
    secret:
      secretName: kestra-ssl

Expose HTTPS port in your service:

ports:
  - name: https
    port: 8443
    targetPort: 8443

Production deployments on cloud platforms such as Azure AKS typically require valid certificates from trusted CAs for SSO integration. Self-signed certificates may work for testing but aren’t suitable for production use.

Verifying the configuration

Check certificate validity with:

kubectl get certificate kestra-tls -w

Expected output:

NAME        READY   SECRET      AGE
kestra-tls  True    kestra-tls  5m

For a step-by-step guide to adding a self-signed or internal CA to the JVM truststore in a Kubernetes deployment, see Trusting a custom CA for outbound connections on Kubernetes.

Managing UpgradesUpgrade Kestra: Rolling Updates, Migrations, and Rollback

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