Installation

You can have rCTF running in minutes with the automated installation script, or set it up manually for more control over the environment.

For production, plan on a VPS with at least 2 CPU cores and 4 GiB RAM. The Setting Up a CTF Platform guide walks through the full deployment, including Nginx, TLS, and firewall configuration.

Quick start with Docker#

The fastest way to get rCTF running is the automated installation script:

$curl -L https://get.rctf.osec.io | sh

The script installs rCTF to /opt/rctf/ with Docker Compose, including PostgreSQL, Redis, and the rCTF server. When prompted, answer y to start the platform immediately.

After installation, configure your instance by editing the YAML files in /opt/rctf/rctf.d/. At minimum, set ctfName, origin, startTime, and endTime (see Configuration for the full reference). Once the config is in place, apply the changes by rebuilding the stack:

$cd /opt/rctf && docker compose up -d --force-recreate --build

Re-run that command after every config change.

See Configuration for the full reference of available options.

Next steps#

• Manual installation for development or custom deployments
• Configuration for the full configuration reference
• Upgrading from v1 if migrating from an older version