Terminals

Per-user Open Terminal orchestration for Docker and Kubernetes.

Terminals gives every Open WebUI user their own isolated container, with separate credentials, resource limits, and network rules. It handles the full lifecycle automatically: spinning up containers when a user connects, proxying traffic, enforcing limits, and cleaning up when they're done.

Open WebUI → Terminals service → per-user containers
(this project) (Open Terminal images)

Important

Production use requires an Open WebUI Enterprise License with Terminals access. Contact the Open WebUI team to get started.

Quick Start

The fastest way to get running is with Docker. Terminals will manage sibling containers through the Docker socket.

Docker (recommended for single-node)

docker run -p 3000:3000 \
-v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
-v $(pwd)/data:/app/data \
terminals

Prerequisites: Docker running on the host.

Kubernetes Operator (recommended for clusters)

For Kubernetes deployments, the operator manages Terminal custom resources automatically, handling pod creation, storage, and cleanup through CRDs.

# Install the CRD and operator
kubectl apply -f manifests/terminal-crd.yaml
kubectl apply -f manifests/operator-deployment.yaml

Set TERMINALS_BACKEND=kubernetes-operator when deploying the Terminals service.

For OpenShift, use restricted mode and an OpenShift-compatible Open Terminal image. See OpenShift deployment.

From source (development)

pip install -e .
terminals serve

Choosing a Backend

Backend	Best for	How it works
docker	Single-node, local dev	One container per user via Docker socket
kubernetes-operator	Production K8s clusters	Operator watches Terminal CRDs for automated lifecycle
kubernetes	K8s without CRDs	Direct Pod + PVC + Service per user (you manage resources)

Set the backend with TERMINALS_BACKEND (defaults to docker).

Policies

Policies let you define different environments, for example, a "data-science" environment with extra CPU and specific Python packages, or a "sandbox" environment with restricted network access.

Without any policies, Terminals uses the defaults from your configuration. Once you're ready to customize, manage policies through the REST API:

# Create a "data-science" policy
curl -X PUT http://localhost:3000/api/v1/policies/data-science \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "image": "ghcr.io/open-webui/open-terminal:python-ds", "cpu_limit": "2", "memory_limit": "4Gi", "env": { "OPENAI_API_KEY": "sk-proj-...", "OPEN_TERMINAL_ALLOWED_DOMAINS": "*.pypi.org,github.com" }, "idle_timeout_minutes": 30 }'

Route requests through a policy by adding /p/{policy_id}/ to the URL:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/p/data-science/execute \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" -H "X-User-Id: user-123" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"command": "echo hello"}'

Policy fields

Field	Type	Description
image	string	Container image to use
env	dict	Environment variables passed to the container
cpu_limit	string	Max CPU (e.g. "2")
memory_limit	string	Max memory (e.g. "4Gi")
storage	string	Persistent volume size (omit for ephemeral storage)
storage_mode	string	per-user, shared, or shared-rwo
idle_timeout_minutes	int	Minutes of inactivity before the container is cleaned up
restricted	bool	Enable restricted Kubernetes/OpenShift pod defaults for this policy
pod_security_context	dict	Pod security context override for Kubernetes backends
container_security_context	dict	Container security context override for Kubernetes backends

Note

Storage limits are fully enforced only on the Kubernetes backends (via sized PVCs). On the docker backend, storage (and TERMINALS_MAX_STORAGE) caps the container's writable layer via Docker's StorageOpt, which requires a storage driver that supports it (e.g. overlay2 on XFS with the pquota mount option). On unsupported drivers such as overlay2-on-ext4, Terminals logs a warning and provisions without the limit. The persistent /home/user directory is bind-mounted from the host and is not quota-limited on Docker. Use a Kubernetes backend if you need hard per-user storage caps.

Extra mounts: Docker vs Kubernetes

Docker deployments can use TERMINALS_DOCKER_MOUNTS to mount shared data into every spawned terminal container:

TERMINALS_DOCKER_MOUNTS='[ {"source": "/srv/datasets", "target": "/mnt/datasets", "readOnly": true}, {"source": "/srv/shared-work", "target": "/workspace/shared", "readOnly": false}]'

source is an absolute path on the Docker daemon host. target is the absolute container path. readOnly defaults to true. Do not mount over /home/user; Open Terminal expects that directory to stay writable.

Kubernetes deployments do not use TERMINALS_DOCKER_MOUNTS. Use the existing policy podTemplate field and native Kubernetes volumes instead:

{
"podTemplate": {
"spec": {
"containers": [
{
"name": "open-terminal",
"volumeMounts": [
{"name": "datasets", "mountPath": "/mnt/datasets", "readOnly": true}
]
}
],
"volumes": [
{"name": "datasets", "persistentVolumeClaim": {"claimName": "datasets"}}
]
}
}
}

Read-only mounts prevent writes through that mount, but they are not a security boundary if terminal containers are privileged or can access the Docker socket.

Policy lifecycle

Policies define what gets provisioned. Policy lifecycle config defines ongoing maintenance for that policy, such as scheduled resets of persisted terminal files. Due resets refresh matching terminals even when they are still running, so long-lived browser sessions do not block scheduled cleanup.

curl -X PUT http://localhost:3000/api/v1/policies/data-science/lifecycle \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "reset": { "schedule": "@weekly", "timezone": "UTC" } }'

Reset schedules support one-time ISO datetimes, @weekly, @monthly, and 5-field cron expressions.

Applying policy changes

Policy updates apply to newly provisioned terminals. To stop matching terminals so the next access starts with the current image, env, and resource settings:

curl -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/v1/terminals/refresh \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"policy_id":"data-science","only_idle":true}'

Use user_id to target one user, policy_id to target one policy, and reset:true to wipe the matched users' persisted files while refreshing. only_idle defaults to true so active users are not interrupted.

Configuration

All settings are configured through environment variables prefixed with TERMINALS_, or via a .env file.

Common settings

Variable	Default	Description
TERMINALS_BACKEND	docker	docker, kubernetes, or kubernetes-operator
TERMINALS_API_KEY	(auto-generated)	Bearer token for API auth
TERMINALS_OPEN_WEBUI_URL		Advanced Open WebUI integration mode. If set, Terminals validates Open WebUI JWTs against that instance. Requires an Open WebUI terminal connection using session auth.
TERMINALS_HOST	0.0.0.0	Orchestrator API bind host
TERMINALS_PORT	3000	Orchestrator API bind port
TERMINALS_WORKERS	1	Uvicorn worker process count. Docker workers adopt existing per-user containers by deterministic name instead of replacing them.
TERMINALS_ENABLE_UI	true	Serve the built-in minimal admin UI at /. Set to false for API-only deployments.
TERMINALS_IMAGE	ghcr.io/open-webui/open-terminal:latest	Default Open Terminal container image
TERMINALS_MAX_CPU		Hard cap on CPU per terminal container/pod
TERMINALS_MAX_MEMORY		Hard cap on memory per terminal container/pod
TERMINALS_MAX_STORAGE		Storage cap. Kubernetes enforces this with PVC sizes; Docker support depends on the storage driver and does not quota the bind-mounted /home/user.
TERMINALS_ALLOWED_IMAGES		Comma-separated list of allowed image patterns
TERMINALS_IDLE_TIMEOUT_MINUTES	0	Minutes of inactivity before terminals are torn down. 0 disables idle cleanup.
TERMINALS_IDLE_CLEANUP_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	120	Timeout for each teardown/reset call during idle cleanup
TERMINALS_DATABASE_URL	sqlite+aiosqlite:///.../data/terminals.db	SQLAlchemy database URL. SQLite is the default; PostgreSQL is optional.
TERMINALS_LOG_LEVEL	INFO	Minimum orchestrator log level: DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, or CRITICAL. On Docker, WARNING or higher disables child container Docker logs because Open Terminal does not expose a log-level env var.
TERMINALS_STATUS_CACHE_TTL	30	Seconds a confirmed-running container status is trusted before re-inspecting it via the backend. 0 re-checks on every request.
TERMINALS_TOKEN_CACHE_TTL	60	Seconds a successfully validated Open WebUI token is cached (JWT mode only). A revoked token stays usable for up to the TTL; 0 validates every request.
TERMINALS_WS_COMPRESSION	false	Enable permessage-deflate on proxied WebSocket terminal traffic. Leave off unless clients connect over slow links.
TERMINALS_ACCESS_LOG	false	Log every HTTP request. Off by default because per-request logging is expensive at high request rates.
TERMINALS_REPLAY_BODY_LIMIT		Maximum proxied request body bytes buffered for retry. Unset, none, null, or unlimited means no size cap.
TERMINALS_PROXY_CONNECT_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	10	Timeout for opening upstream proxy connections to terminal containers
TERMINALS_PROXY_READ_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	360	Timeout while waiting for upstream proxy responses. Keep above Open Terminal's maximum /execute?wait value.
TERMINALS_PROXY_WRITE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	300	Timeout while sending proxied request bodies upstream
TERMINALS_PROXY_POOL_TIMEOUT_SECONDS	300	Timeout while waiting for an upstream proxy connection from the pool

Docker-only settings

Variable	Default	Description
TERMINALS_DOCKER_HOST	127.0.0.1	Host/IP that the orchestrator uses to reach published terminal container ports
TERMINALS_DOCKER_NETWORK		Docker network for terminal containers. Use a comma-separated list to shard terminals across multiple Docker bridge networks.
TERMINALS_DOCKER_MOUNTS		JSON array of extra bind mounts with source, target, and optional readOnly
TERMINALS_DOCKER_DATA_DIR	data/terminals	Host directory for per-user /home/user bind mounts

Kubernetes-only settings

Variable	Default	Description
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_NAMESPACE	terminals	Namespace for terminal pods, services, PVCs, and CRDs
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_STORAGE_CLASS		Storage class for terminal PVCs. Empty uses the cluster default.
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_STORAGE_SIZE	1Gi	Default PVC size when a policy does not set storage
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_STORAGE_MODE	per-user	Storage mode: per-user, shared, or shared-rwo
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_SERVICE_TYPE	ClusterIP	Service type for terminal services
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_KUBECONFIG		Kubeconfig path. Empty uses in-cluster config.
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_LABELS		Extra labels for terminal resources, as k=v,k2=v2
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_RESTRICTED	false	Enable restricted Kubernetes/OpenShift pod defaults globally
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_POD_SECURITY_CONTEXT		JSON pod security context merged into terminal pods
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_CONTAINER_SECURITY_CONTEXT		JSON container security context merged into terminal containers
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_NODE_SELECTOR		Node selector for terminal and reset pods, as JSON or k=v,k2=v2
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_TOLERATIONS		JSON array of tolerations for terminal and reset pods

Kubernetes-operator-only settings

Variable	Default	Description
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_CRD_GROUP	openwebui.com	Terminal CRD API group
TERMINALS_KUBERNETES_CRD_VERSION	v1alpha1	Terminal CRD API version

These tables are the public environment-variable surface. Compatibility-only settings may still be accepted by the code but are intentionally omitted.

By default, known-size proxied request bodies are buffered so retry behavior is preserved. Set TERMINALS_REPLAY_BODY_LIMIT to stream request bodies above that byte limit instead of buffering them in orchestrator memory. Chunked uploads are always streamed one-shot and are not retried.

Docker bridge scaling

Docker documents that bridge networks can become unstable when 1000 or more containers connect to a single network. For larger single-node Docker deployments, create multiple bridge networks and set TERMINALS_DOCKER_NETWORK to a comma-separated list; Terminals assigns each user/policy terminal to a stable network shard. The orchestrator container must be attached to every listed network so it can reach terminals by container name.

Authentication

Mode	How to enable
API Key	Set TERMINALS_API_KEY to a static token
Open (dev only)	Leave unset, no auth, for local development only

License

Open WebUI Enterprise License