Complete guide to installing and configuring Certus for your organization.
1 · Getting Started
Overview
Certus is an evidence-native compliance automation platform that attaches deterministic verification and cryptographic proof to every pull request. It integrates with your existing CI/CD pipelines, GRC tools, and security infrastructure to provide real-time compliance monitoring and automated evidence generation.
Prerequisites
- GitHub org admin or GitLab group maintainer access
- Branch protection or merge request approval rules enabled
- Access to your org secrets manager (AWS Secrets Manager, Vault, etc.)
- Kubernetes cluster (for self-hosted deployment) or CI/CD runner access
- KMS access for signing operations (AWS KMS, Google Cloud KMS, or Azure Key Vault)
System Requirements
- Linux-based CI runners (Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, or RHEL 8+)
- Outbound HTTPS access to api.certus.ai and evidence.certus.ai
- Optional: VPC peering via AWS PrivateLink or GCP Private Service Connect
- Minimum 2 GB RAM and 2 vCPU per runner node
- Docker 20.10+ or containerd 1.6+ (for containerized deployments)
Compliance & Security Posture
Certus is SOC-2 Type II compliant (audit scheduled Feb 2026), ISO 27001 aligned, and HIPAA-ready with BAAs available. All evidence data is encrypted at rest using AES-256 and in transit using TLS 1.3. Data residency options include US (us-east-1) and EU (eu-west-1) regions. We support air-gapped deployments and can run entirely within your VPC with no data egress.
Quick Install
The fastest way to get started is using our CLI installer. This will set up the Certus agent, configure your first blueprint, and run a test verification.
# Download and install the Certus CLI
curl -sSL https://downloads.certus.ai/cli/install.sh | bash
# Verify installation
certus --version
# Initialize your workspace
certus init --org your-org-name
# Authenticate with your service token
certus auth login
# Run your first verification
certus verify --local