1
Understand Bentra
Bentra turns infrastructure tasks into workflows. A request workflow collects input through a form and can wait for approval; a job runs manually, from the API or on a schedule. Steps run as bash on runners in your own infrastructure. Read Understand Bentra for the building blocks: organizations, workspaces, workflows, requests, runs and runners.
2
Sign in and set up SSO (optional)
Sign in at app.bentralabs.com with your work email. Single sign-on is an Enterprise feature: owners and admins connect your identity provider in Settings → Authentication and choose whether people who sign in through it join automatically. Skip this step if you’re not on Enterprise; people sign in with email and password or a social login instead. See How sign-in works and Set up SSO.
3
Set up your first runner
Runs execute on runners you host: a Kubernetes cluster, a Docker host or a Linux VM. Open Settings → Runner Pools, create a pool or use the default one, copy its runner token, and install a runner with it. Runners connect out to Bentra over HTTPS, so you don’t open any inbound ports. See Install a runner.
4
Connect a repository
If your workflow files live in GitHub, add a connector in Settings → Connectors so Bentra can read them and runners can clone them. You can skip this and keep the files in Bentra instead. See Connect a repository.
5
Create a workspace and your first workflow
A workspace groups a team’s workflows, connectors and variables. Create one from the workspace switcher, or use the default workspace, then click Create Workflow and follow the wizard. Submit the form and watch the run. See Create your first workflow.
6
Understand requests and approvals
Each form submission becomes a request. By default a request needs one approval from a designated approver before it runs. Decide who approves each workflow and how many approvals it needs. See Requests and approvals.
7
Open the request portal to the rest of the company
The request portal is a simple catalogue where anyone in the organization, including requesters who don’t use the rest of Bentra, finds forms, submits them and follows their requests. Brand it, then choose which forms appear there. The portal is available on plans that include it. See Request portal.
Then
Permissions
The recommended setup for roles, workspaces and workflow access.
Members and groups
Invite people and organize them into groups.
Variables and secrets
Give workflows the configuration and credentials they need.
Status and schedules
Pause, archive and schedule workflows.
Runs
Follow logs, re-run and cancel.
API tokens
Automate Bentra from scripts and CI.