Deploy InferenceWall in Production

InferenceWall supports three deployment paths: a Python package installed directly on the host, a Docker container, or a Kubernetes deployment via Helm. All three paths expose the same API server and SDK. Choose based on your existing infrastructure.

Installation

# Lite — heuristic engine only, zero ML deps
pip install inferwall

# Standard — adds ONNX classifier + FAISS semantic engine
pip install inferwall[standard]

# Full — adds LLM-judge for borderline cases
pip install inferwall[full]

docker build -t inferwall .
docker run -p 8000:8000 \
  -e IW_API_KEY=iwk_scan_yourkey \
  -e IW_ADMIN_KEY=iwk_admin_yourkey \
  inferwall

helm install inferwall ./helm/inferwall \
  --set env.IW_API_KEY=iwk_scan_yourkey \
  --set env.IW_ADMIN_KEY=iwk_admin_yourkey

Pre-built wheels are available for Linux x86_64, Linux aarch64, macOS arm64, and Windows x86_64. Requires Python >= 3.10.

Deployment profiles

Profile	Install	Engines	Latency
Lite	`pip install inferwall`	Heuristic (Rust)	<0.3ms p99
Standard	`pip install inferwall[standard]`	+ Classifier (ONNX) + Semantic (FAISS)	<80ms p99
Full	`pip install inferwall[full]`	+ LLM-Judge	<2s p99

Post-install setup

Generate API keys

inferwall admin setup

This generates a scan key (iwk_scan_…) and an admin key (iwk_admin_…) and writes them to .env.local.

Set environment variables

Export the generated keys before starting the server:

export IW_API_KEY=iwk_scan_yourkey
export IW_ADMIN_KEY=iwk_admin_yourkey

Or source the generated file directly:

source .env.local

Start the server

inferwall serve

# Or source the generated env file and serve in one command
source .env.local && inferwall serve

The server listens on 0.0.0.0:8000 by default.

Install ML models (Standard and Full only)

If you installed the standard or full profile, download the ML models:

inferwall models install --profile standard

Models are cached in ~/.cache/inferwall/models/ and downloaded from HuggingFace (~730 MB for Standard).

Run a health check

Confirm the server is up and signatures are loaded:

curl http://localhost:8000/v1/health

In development, you can skip API key setup entirely. Run inferwall serve without setting IW_API_KEY or IW_ADMIN_KEY and scan without any Authorization header. Dev mode is not suitable for production.

Environment variables

Variable	Description	Default
`IW_API_KEY`	Scan API key	None (dev mode)
`IW_ADMIN_KEY`	Admin API key	None (dev mode)
`IW_HOST`	Server bind host	`0.0.0.0`
`IW_PORT`	Server port	`8000`
`IW_TLS`	TLS mode: `auto`, `off`, or `acme`	`off`
`IW_PROFILE`	Deployment profile: `lite`, `standard`, `full`	`lite`
`IW_LOG_LEVEL`	Log verbosity: `debug`, `info`, `warning`, `error`	`info`
`IW_REDIS_URL`	Redis URL for distributed sessions	None

TLS modes

Mode	Behavior
`off`	Plain HTTP (default)
`auto`	TLS using a certificate at the path provided in `IW_TLS`
`acme`	Automatic certificate provisioning via ACME/Let’s Encrypt

Redis for distributed sessions

Set IW_REDIS_URL to enable distributed rate limiting and session state across multiple InferenceWall instances:

export IW_REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379

When unset, InferenceWall uses in-process state, which is scoped to a single instance.

Health check endpoints

Endpoint	Purpose	Use in
`GET /v1/health/live`	Liveness — is the process alive?	Kubernetes `livenessProbe`
`GET /v1/health/ready`	Readiness — can it handle requests?	Kubernetes `readinessProbe`
`GET /v1/health`	Full health with signature count and engine status	Monitoring dashboards

# Liveness
curl http://localhost:8000/v1/health/live

# Readiness
curl http://localhost:8000/v1/health/ready

# Full health
curl http://localhost:8000/v1/health

Environment variables reference

Complete list of all environment variables with types, defaults, and valid values.

Health API

Response schemas for the liveness, readiness, and full health endpoints.

Get Started

Core Concepts

Integrations

Guides

Reference

Deploy InferenceWall in Production

Installation

Deployment profiles

Post-install setup

Environment variables

TLS modes

Redis for distributed sessions

Health check endpoints

Further reading

Environment variables reference

Health API

​Installation

​Deployment profiles

​Post-install setup

​Environment variables

​TLS modes

​Redis for distributed sessions

​Health check endpoints

​Further reading

Environment variables reference

Health API

Installation

Deployment profiles

Post-install setup

Environment variables

TLS modes

Redis for distributed sessions

Health check endpoints

Further reading