Choose your setup

Orchesty has two on-ramps. Pick one based on what you actually want to do today; switching later is straightforward.

Worker setup #

You only run the code that does work. The platform itself (Admin UI, queues, persistence) lives elsewhere, typically in Orchesty Cloud or in a shared instance your team already operates.

Best when:

• You already have an Orchesty instance to point at (Cloud, your team's shared dev, or a colleague's laptop).
• You want the lightest possible footprint: just your worker code (Node.js or PHP) and the SDK, no Docker, no databases.
• You're happy to install Node.js or PHP locally and run the worker process directly.

Continue with Worker setup overview.

Full-stack setup #

You run the entire platform locally: Admin UI, MongoDB, RabbitMQ, and your workers. Everything is yours, nothing leaves your laptop.

Best when:

• You need offline development.
• You want the Admin UI, queues, and persistence on your own machine without depending on an existing instance.
• You want to control every component, including the Admin UI version.
• Your organisation requires on-prem data flow even at development time.

Continue with Full-stack setup overview.

Decision matrix #

Using AI to bootstrap (orthogonal) #

The AI bootstrap workflow works on both setups. It is not a third on-ramp; it is a way to get to your first working node faster on either of them. See Using AI to bootstrap.