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Why Self-Host Vestauth?

Self-hosting Vestauth gives you complete control over your agent authentication infrastructure. By running your own server, you:
  • Own your data: All agent identities and public keys are stored in your own database
  • Control your infrastructure: Deploy on your own hardware or cloud provider
  • Customize as needed: Full access to the server codebase for modifications
  • Ensure privacy: Agent registration and authentication happens on your infrastructure
Vestauth is designed to be easy to self-host while maintaining the same cryptographic security as the hosted service.

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Architecture Overview

Vestauth’s self-hosted architecture consists of three main components:

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Server Application

The Vestauth server is a Node.js/Express application that handles:
  • Agent registration (/register) - Agents register their public keys
  • Key discovery (/.well-known/http-message-signatures-directory) - Tools fetch agent public keys
  • Authentication (/whoami) - Verify agent signatures
  • Key rotation (/rotate) - Update agent cryptographic keys
The server implementation can be found in src/server/index.js.

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Database Layer

Vestauth requires PostgreSQL to store:
  • agents table - Agent identities (uid, timestamps)
  • public_jwks table - Agent public keys (kid, value, state)
The database schema is managed through migrations using Knex.js.

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Subdomain Routing

Vestauth uses subdomain-based routing for agent discovery:
This follows the web-bot-auth specification for public key discovery.
Production requirement: Configure a wildcard DNS record for *.${HOSTNAME} to enable proper agent discovery.Example: If HOSTNAME=vestauth.yourapp.com, add a DNS record for *.vestauth.yourapp.com.

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Infrastructure Requirements

  • Node.js v14 or higher
  • PostgreSQL 12 or higher (local or managed)
  • Wildcard DNS configured for your hostname
  • HTTPS recommended for production deployments

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Next Steps

1

Setup Server

Follow the setup guide to initialize and run your Vestauth server.
2

Configure Environment

Learn about configuration options including PORT, HOSTNAME, and DATABASE_URL.
3

Setup Database

Review database setup for migration and connection details.