Getting started
Set up Portlane and run your first integration flow
This guide orients you before you build your first Portlane flow. It stays at the public tier — enough to understand the model and book a qualified demo. Detailed install, security, and API reference live in the customer bundle served from your on-prem Control Tower.
Prerequisites
- A Linux VM (or bare metal) to install the Portlane bundle — see Hosting and sizing
- Network paths from that instance to the source and target systems your flow will touch
- A git repository for your flow code (
portlane-pipelines) — provided as a starter in the install bundle
Core concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Control Tower | Operator console — health, flow status, replay |
| Engines | Six stateless services that ingest, route, transform, and deliver messages |
| Flow | An identity card (routing, target) plus a pure Python transform |
| License | Organization entitlement (plan, seats, features) — downloaded from the client portal for on-prem activation |
| Publish | Syncs a flow card into the platform's routing configuration |
Run your first flow
- Install the bundle — Run
install.shon your instance; it starts the engines and the Control Tower. - Author a flow — Declare an identity card and a pure Python transform in
portlane-pipelines. - Deploy — CI builds a worker image with your transform and publishes the routing to your instance.
- Verify execution — Use the Control Tower to confirm the flow ran, without routing payloads through a vendor cloud.
What to read next
Instance bootstrap
Portal download, install.sh, first login
ReadUpdating Portlane
One-command upgrades, data preserved, rollback
ReadHosting and sizing
Ubuntu, Hetzner CPX, indicative costs
ReadDeveloper setup
portlane-pipelines, CI, secrets on instance
ReadArchitecture
Engines and central Postgres
ReadData flows
Ingress, routing, transform, egress
ReadConnectors
Databases, files, APIs, streams
ReadNeed a walkthrough?
For a product walkthrough on your own systems, book a demo on the marketing site.