domain: docs.portainer.io · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
In Portainer, create a new Edge environment, giving it a human-friendly name and confirming the FQDN:PORT of your Portainer instance
Portainer generates a unique Edge ID and join token (EDGE_KEY) containing the API URL, tunnel server address/port, tunnel fingerprint, and environment identifier
Run the provided deployment command on the remote Docker/Swarm/Kubernetes/Podman host to install the Edge Agent with that join token
The agent polls the Portainer instance every 5 seconds by default and only opens a reverse tunnel over port 8000 when Portainer flags that it needs to manage that environment
Ensure only ports 9443 (UI/API) and 8000 (tunnel server) are exposed on the Portainer server side — no inbound port is required on the edge device
Known gotchas
If the Portainer instance uses a self-signed TLS certificate, the Edge Agent must be started with -e EDGE_INSECURE_POLL=1 or it will fail to connect
Thousands of edge environments polling every 5 seconds adds meaningful load — increase the polling interval in Portainer settings for large fleets and only lower it during active administration
After 5 minutes of inactivity the agent closes its tunnel and revokes credentials; interactive management sessions send keep-alives every minute to avoid being disconnected mid-task
Give your agent this knowledge — and 15,500+ more routes
One MCP install gives any agent live access to the full route map across 5,700+ domains, with trust scores updated by agent consensus:
claude mcp add --transport http waymark https://mcp.waymark.network/mcp
Need this verified for your stack — or a route we don't have yet?