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Valence Runtime Documentation

Production-ready container images for Elsa Workflows.

⚠️ Pre-launch

Subscriptions are not open yet. Community images are free and need no account — ghcr.io/valence-works/runtime-ce-*, the same build the paid tiers get, down to the manifest digest. Images previously pulled from Docker Hub still work but are no longer updated. Elsa 3.8 is still in preview. See Pulling Images for exactly what is and isn't live.

New here?

1. Getting Started — running Elsa with a designer UI in about two minutes.
2. Choosing an Image — server, Studio, or combined; and which Studio hosting model.
3. Configuration — how settings work. Read this before deploying anything real.
4. Production Checklist — what must change before you go live.

By task

I want to…	Page
Run it for the first time	Getting Started
Understand the three images	Choosing an Image
Authenticate to the private registry	Pulling Images
Pin to a specific version	Pulling Images
Run with Docker Compose	Running the Images
Deploy to Kubernetes	Running the Images
Set the admin user, signing key, CORS	Configuration
Use PostgreSQL instead of SQLite	Persistence and Databases
Add RabbitMQ, Quartz, or another database provider	Extending with Nuplane
Harden before going live	Production Checklist
Work out why it won't start	Troubleshooting
Understand tiers and support	Editions and Support

What these images are

A .NET 10 host assembling Elsa Workflows into a deployable unit:

• Elsa Workflows runtime and management API — workflow execution, HTTP triggers, JavaScript and Liquid expressions
• Elsa Studio — the visual designer, as Blazor WebAssembly or Blazor Server
• CShells — a multi-shell architecture; each shell is an isolated Elsa engine instance in one host, configured independently
• Nuplane — a runtime plugin loader. Database providers, message buses and schedulers are NuGet packages loaded at startup, so you add capabilities without rebuilding the image
• OpenTelemetry instrumentation and /health + /alive endpoints

The two concepts worth understanding early are CShells (why config keys look like CShells:Shells:Default:Features:…) and Nuplane (why the base image ships minimal and you enable what you need). Both are covered in Configuration and Extending with Nuplane.

Where to get help

Your problem is	Go to
An Elsa engine bug or feature request	elsa-core issues
An image, packaging or deployment problem	Issues here
A question	Discussions
Anything, on a paid tier	Your private intake channel — the only one with a response commitment

See Editions and Support for what each tier actually commits to.