---
title: "Octelium: Open Source Zero Trust Secure Access Platform"
description: "Octelium is an open source, self-hosted Zero Trust secure access platform for humans, workloads and AI agents, with per-request policy, secretless access and real-time auditing."
canonical: "https://octelium.com/"
---

# The modern, unified, open source secure access platform

Replace your VPN and remote access tools with a modern, unified, free and open source, identity-based zero trust platform for humans, workloads and AI agents to access hybrid infrastructure, including internal resources, microservices, AI workloads, IoT and SaaS.

[Get started](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/overview/quick-install.md)[What is Octelium?](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/overview/intro.md)[GitHub repo](https://github.com/octelium/octelium)

- Free and open source
- Designed for self-hosting

Why Octelium

## Four challenges of modern secure remote access

As humans, workloads, services, and AI agents converge on the same infrastructure, four challenges become fundamental: identity, authorization, secure connectivity, and visibility. Octelium unifies all four in a single secure access platform.

1. 01

   ### Credential sprawl

   API keys, SSH keys, database passwords, kubeconfigs, and cloud credentials must be distributed, stored, rotated, and revoked across a growing fleet.

   In Octelium

   Octelium keeps upstream credentials as Cluster Secrets and injects them only after authorization. Users, workloads and agents never need to hold them.

2. 02

   ### Fragmented identity

   Human identity lives in directories and SSO providers, while service accounts, CI jobs, workloads and AI agents accumulate separate credentials and identities elsewhere.

   In Octelium

   Unified identity management for humans and workloads. People authenticate through your OIDC and SAML 2.0 identity providers and native FIDO2, WebAuthn and TPM 2.0 authenticators, while workloads use OAuth2, authentication tokens or federated OIDC assertions.

3. 03

   ### Broad network access

   VPNs and network-level controls often make more infrastructure reachable than a user or workload actually needs.

   In Octelium

   Every resource is protected behind an identity-aware proxy. Access control is enforced at the application layer on a per-request basis with policy-as-code.

4. 04

   ### Incomplete visibility

   Network and connection logs rarely explain who performed an application action, why it was authorized, and what the request actually contained.

   In Octelium

   OpenTelemetry-native, application-layer-aware, real-time visibility. Structured logs and metrics are exported to your SIEM providers.

Unified Access Platform

## A unified architecture for client-based and clientless access

One zero trust architecture built on identity-aware proxies for humans, workloads and AI agents to access internal resources behind NAT in any environments, protected SaaS resources and containerized applications.

- [Client-based access over WireGuard and QUIC tunnels, which behaves as a zero-config dual-stack VPN with a stable private DNS.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/user/cli/connect.md)
- [Clientless BeyondCorp access for humans via browsers and for workloads over standard OAuth2 and bearer authentication, with no client and no SDK.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/service/clientless.md)

[Connecting to a Cluster](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/user/cli/connect.md)

least-privilege access

## Identity-based access control at the application layer

Access is authorized on a per-request basis against the identity behind the request, the context around it and the content of the request itself, rather than against the network path it arrived on.

- [Identity-based, context-aware ABAC with policy-as-code via CEL and OPA on a per-request basis.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/policy.md)
- [Application-layer-aware access control covers HTTP methods, paths, headers and serialized JSON bodies, Kubernetes verbs, resources and namespaces, SSH and database users, and MCP and LLM operations.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/guide/cel.md)
- [Zero standing privileges. No admins or superuser Users. All access must be granted by a Policy.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/overview/zero-trust.md)

[Read about Policies](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/policy.md)

Dynamic Secretless Access

## Access resources without distributing their credentials

Dynamic secretless access where teams and AI agents access protected infrastructure without ever holding a credential.

- [Covers HTTP API keys and access tokens, SSH and RDP credentials, database passwords, kubeconfigs and mTLS certificates.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/service/secretless.md)
- [Select different upstream identities and credentials dynamically based on the request's identity and context.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/service/dynamic-config.md)
- Revoke access through Policy instead of rotating credentials across every user, workload and agent.

[Read about secretless access](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/service/secretless.md)

Identity management

## One identity model for humans, workloads and AI agents

Humans, workloads and AI agents use the same User, Group, Policy and audit model while authenticating through mechanisms appropriate to each type of identity.

- [Authenticate humans via OpenID Connect or SAML 2.0 identity providers (IdPs) and enforce additional authentication through Policy.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/identity-providers.md)
- [Support hardware-backed authentication with native WebAuthn/passkeys, TPM and TOTP.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/authenticator.md)
- [Federate workloads and CI/CD systems through OAuth2 or OIDC assertions instead of distributing long-lived credentials.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/credential.md)

[Read about Users and identity](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/user.md)

Agentic AI

## Secure AI agents, MCP servers and LLM access

Identity-based secretless access to MCP servers, AI/LLM providers and infrastructure for AI agents at scale.

- [MCP gateway mode controls access by tool calls and their arguments, protocol versions can be pinned, and MCP servers can run as managed containers deployed by the Cluster.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/service/mcp.md)
- [LLM/AI gateway mode controls access by model, declared tools and token limits of each inference request and audits token usage.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/service/llm.md)
- [Clear identity and L7-aware visibility for AI agents access to all of your internal and SaaS APIs, databases and SSH servers, with no upstream credentials distributed to the agent.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/user.md)

[Read about the MCP mode](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/service/mcp.md)

Visibility

## Real-time, L7-aware visibility and auditing

OpenTelemetry-native, real-time, structured, L7-aware visibility exported to the log management and SIEM tools your organization already operates.

- [Layer-7 visibility into every request: HTTP paths, methods and bodies, database queries, Kubernetes operations, SSH session recordings, DNS questions, and MCP and LLM calls with token usage.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/visibility.md)
- Provide detailed access evidence for SOC 2, ISO/IEC 27001 and internal security controls through identity-aware, application-level auditing.

[Read about visibility and logs](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/visibility.md)

Platform

## Self-hosted, Kubernetes-native and GitOps-managed

Run Octelium on your own Kubernetes infrastructure and manage Cluster resources declaratively through YAML, GitOps, gRPC APIs and SDKs.

- [Centralized, declarative, GitOps-friendly management, with the whole Cluster programmable over its gRPC APIs and SDKs.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/overview/management.md)
- [Effortlessly deploy, scale and secure access to containerized applications.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/service/managed-containers.md)
- [Built on top of Kubernetes for seamless horizontal scalability and high availability.](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/overview/how-octelium-works.md)

[Read the management guide](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/overview/management.md)

Use cases

## Use Octelium across your infrastructure

Start with a VPN replacement or ZTNA deployment, then apply the same identity, Services, Policies and audit model to SSH, Kubernetes, databases, APIs, MCP servers and AI agents.

### Secure access

10

- [Modern remote access VPNZero-config client-based access over WireGuard and QUIC, with a single stable route, private dual-stack addressing and automatic private DNS.](https://octelium.com/solutions/open-source-business-vpn.md)
- [ZTNA and BeyondCorp platformIdentity-based, layer-7 aware access to internal applications, for humans in a browser and for workloads over standard OAuth2.](https://octelium.com/solutions/open-source-ztna.md)
- [Zero trust SSHSSH without distributing private keys or running a PKI, with per-request authorization on the login user and recorded sessions.](https://octelium.com/solutions/zero-trust-ssh.md)
- [Zero trust Kubernetes accesskubectl and the API server reached without a kubeconfig, authorized per verb, resource and namespace.](https://octelium.com/solutions/zero-trust-kubernetes.md)
- [Zero trust database accessPostgreSQL and MySQL reached without passwords, authorized on the database and database user, with queries captured in the logs.](https://octelium.com/solutions/zero-trust-databases.md)
- [Zero trust access to SaaS APIsProtected public APIs reached without handing out long-lived API keys, with the key injected at the proxy per request.](https://octelium.com/solutions/zero-trust-saas.md)
- [API gatewayA self-hosted, scalable and secure API gateway for microservices, with dynamic identity-based routing and request manipulation.](https://octelium.com/solutions/open-source-api-gateway.md)
- [AI gatewayIdentity-based access control, routing and visibility for OpenAI and Anthropic APIs, including model and token limits.](https://octelium.com/solutions/open-source-ai-gateway.md)
- [MCP gatewayIdentity, authorization and auditing for MCP servers, down to the individual tool call and its arguments.](https://octelium.com/solutions/open-source-mcp-gateway.md)
- [Infrastructure for AI agentsAgents get their own identities, their own Groups and their own audit trail instead of borrowing a person's credentials.](https://octelium.com/solutions/agentic-ai-secure-access-zero-trust.md)

### Deployment and hosting

04

- [Self-hosted secure tunnelsAn ngrok and Cloudflare Tunnel alternative for identity-based as well as anonymous public access, on your own domain.](https://octelium.com/solutions/open-source-secure-tunnels.md)
- [Self-hosted PaaSDeploy, scale and host containerized applications that the Cluster serves and protects itself.](https://octelium.com/solutions/open-source-paas.md)
- [Kubernetes ingress alternativeRoute to any Kubernetes service through dynamic, layer-7 aware policy-as-code rather than through annotations.](https://octelium.com/solutions/zero-trust-kubernetes.md)
- [Homelab infrastructureReach everything behind NAT from anywhere, and host websites, APIs and heavy containers privately or publicly.](https://octelium.com/solutions/open-source-homelab.md)

On every Octelium Cluster

The same platform capabilities ship with every deployment, whichever way you use it.

- [OIDC & SAML 2.0 SSO](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/identity-providers.md)
- [Native FIDO2, TPM 2.0 & TOTP](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/authenticator.md)
- [OpenTelemetry auditing](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/visibility.md)
- [GitOps management](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/overview/management.md)
- [Policy-as-code with CEL & OPA](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/policy.md)
- [Managed containers](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/service/managed-containers.md)
- [Clientless BeyondCorp access](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/service/clientless.md)
- [Anonymous public access](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/core/service/anonymous-access.md)
- [gRPC API & SDKs](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/management/guide/sdk.md)

Questions

## Frequently asked

- Is it really free and open source?

  Yes. Octelium is free and open source and is designed for self-hosting. There is no proprietary cloud-based control plane and it is not a limited edition of a separate paid product. An enterprise package is available for organizations that need capabilities such as a web console, SCIM 2.0 provisioning and Secret encryption at rest, and it is free to use, forever, for personal and evaluation use.

- How is this different from a VPN?

  A VPN grants access to a network. Octelium represents each protected resource as a Service behind an identity-aware proxy and authorizes every request against the identity behind it, the context around it and the content of the request itself. Client-based access still uses WireGuard and QUIC tunnels, but establishing one grants access to nothing on its own.

- Which protocols does it cover?

  HTTP, gRPC and web applications, SSH, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL and MySQL, RDP, DNS, SOCKS5, generic TCP and UDP, and the MCP and LLM modes for AI workloads. Each one is covered by the same identity, Policy and auditing model, and the layer-7 aware ones expose their protocol details to both Policies and logs.

- Do I need Kubernetes experience to run Octelium?

  No. Octelium runs on Kubernetes, but Kubernetes expertise is not required for a basic deployment. The quick installer provisions a complete single-node Cluster, including Kubernetes, on a fresh Linux VM or server. Larger production deployments can run on managed or on-premises multi-node Kubernetes.

Get started

## Install a Cluster on your own infrastructure in minutes

One fresh Linux VM/server, and a domain you own. The installer takes care of the Cluster and all of its dependencies, Kubernetes included.

[Quick install guide](https://octelium.com/docs/octelium/latest/overview/quick-install.md)[GitHub repo](https://github.com/octelium/octelium)

```
$ curl -o install-cluster.sh https://octelium.com/install-cluster.sh$ chmod +x install-cluster.sh$ ./install-cluster.sh --domain <DOMAIN>
```