# How to install Weaviate

Weaviate is available as a hosted service, [Weaviate Cloud (WCD)](/go/console?utm_content=deploy), or as a self managed instance. If you manage your own instance, you can host it locally or with a cloud provider. Self-managed instances use the same Weaviate Database as WCD.

If you are upgrading from a previous version of Weaviate, see the [Migration Guide](migration.md) for any changes that may affect your installation.

## Installation methods

To install and configure Weaviate, see the following:

- **[Weaviate Cloud](../cloud/quickstart.md)**: Managed services for development and production environments.
- **[Docker Compose](../installation/installation-guides-docker-installation.md)**: Docker containers are well suited for development and testing.
- **[Kubernetes](../installation/installation-guides-k8s-installation.md)**: Kubernetes is ideal for scalable, production deployments.
- **[AWS Marketplace](../deploy-aws/aws-marketplace.md)**: Deploy Weaviate directly from the AWS Marketplace.
- **[GCP Marketplace](../gcp/gcp-marketplace.md)**: Deploy Weaviate directly from the Google Cloud Marketplace.
- **[DigitalOcean Managed Weaviate](../digitalocean/digitalocean.md)**: Run Weaviate as a managed service on DigitalOcean (public preview).
- **[Snowpark Container Services](installation-guides-spcs-integration.md)** Deploy Weaviate in Snowflake's Snowpark environment.
- **[Embedded Weaviate](../installation/installation-guides-embedded.md)**: Experimental. Embedded Weaviate is a client based tool.

:::callout{intent="warning" title="Native Windows support"}
Although Weaviate can be used on Windows via containerized environments like [Docker](../installation/installation-guides-docker-installation.md) or [WSL](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/), we don't offer native Windows support at this time.
:::

## Configuration files

Docker Compose and Kubernetes use `yaml` files to configure Weaviate instances. Docker uses the [`docker-compose.yml`](../installation/installation-guides-docker-installation.md) file. Kubernetes relies on [Helm charts](../installation/installation-guides-k8s-installation.md#weaviate-helm-chart) and the `values.yaml` file. The Weaviate documentation also calls these files `configuration yaml files`.

If you are self-hosting, consider experimenting on a small scale with Docker and then transferring your configuration to Kubernetes Helm charts when you are more familiar with Weaviate.

## Unreleased versions

:::callout{intent="warning" title="Unreleased software"}
DISCLAIMER: Release candidate images and other unreleased software are not supported.

Unreleased software and images may contain bugs. APIs may change. Features under development may be withdrawn or modified. Do not use unreleased software in production.
:::

To run an unreleased version of Weaviate, edit your configuration file to use the unreleased image instead of a generally available image. The [GitHub releases page](https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/releases/) lists generally available and release candidate builds.

For example, to run a Docker image for a release candidate, edit your `docker-config.yaml` to import the release candidate image.

```yml
image: cr.weaviate.io/semitechnologies/weaviate:1.34.0-rc.1
```

When you try upcoming features, please provide [feedback](https://github.com/weaviate/weaviate/issues/new/choose). Your comments are appreciated and help us to make Weaviate more useful for you.

## Related pages

- [Connect to Weaviate](../connect-to-weaviate/index.md)
- [Weaviate Quickstart](../quickstart/index.md)
- [Weaviate Cloud Quickstart](../cloud/quickstart.md)
- [References: Configuration](../deploy-config/overview.md)

## Questions and feedback

Have a question or feedback? Here's how to reach us.

::::card-grid
:::card{title="Community Forum" href="https://forum.weaviate.io/c/support" icon="messages-square"}
Ask questions and connect with other developers on our **Community forum**.
:::

:::card{title="Support" href="/guides/support-overview" icon="life-buoy"}
Weaviate Cloud user or customer? Find the right channel on the **Support page**.
:::
::::

## Related pages

- [Agents](./agents-index.md)
- [AI-assisted Weaviate code generation](./ai-assisted-vibe-coding-index.md)
- [APIs](./apis-index.md)
- [Authorization and authentication](./authorization-and-authentication-index.md)
- [Benchmarks](./benchmarks-index.md)
- [Best practices](./best-practices-index.md)
- [Client libraries](./clients-index.md)
- [Client Libraries / SDKs](./client-libraries-index.md)
- [Cloud](./cloud-index.md)
- [Cloud account management](./cloud-account-management-index.md)

# Agent Instructions

This portal answers questions programmatically. To receive a synthesized,
source-cited answer instead of crawling page by page, append the `?ask=`
query parameter to any page URL on this site:

    /guides/quickstart?ask=how+do+I+authenticate

Optional parameters:

- `&goal=<what-you-are-trying-to-do>` steers the answer toward your
  objective (e.g. `&goal=write+a+python+client`).
- `&version=<label>` scopes the answer to a mounted version when the
  portal publishes more than one.

The response is `text/markdown`: the answer followed by a `# Sources` list
of the portal pages it was grounded in. Status codes are the contract:

- `200` — the answer; `402` — the portal owner’s plan or answer credits are
  exhausted (surface this to your operator; do NOT retry); `429` — you are
  rate-limited; back off for the `Retry-After` seconds; `503` — the answer
  lane is temporarily unavailable; fall back to crawling the `.md` pages.

For the full corpus map read `llms.txt` at the site root; for the tool
surface (search + page fetch as MCP tools) see `/mcp`.