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Athene Documentation

Athene is a universal software repository server for self-hosted Debian, RPM, and Maven package management.

This guide follows the same practical flow used in other Jadaptive docs, with a CLI-first approach because the CLI currently exposes the most complete feature set.

What Athene Does

Athene gives platform and DevOps teams a central service to:

  • Create and manage multiple repository types
  • Import packages using CLI, API, browser uploads, or SFTP
  • Control read/write access with local, LDAP, and rule-based controls
  • Index packages for search and lifecycle actions
  • Sync/export repository content to local or remote destinations

Why Teams Use Athene

Compared to ad-hoc file shares and custom scripts, Athene provides:

  • A consistent publish and distribution workflow across package ecosystems
  • Safer access control and token-based automation paths
  • Faster operations with CLI automation and API integration
  • Better traceability with central indexing and administration surfaces

Quick Start (Docker)

The example below runs Athene in Docker with persistent mounts, HTTP/HTTPS/SSH port mappings, and basic repository authentication credentials.

mkdir -p ./docker/workspace ./docker/config ./docker/logs
docker run -d \
  --name athene \
  -p 19191:19191 \
  -p 19443:19443 \
  -p 19222:19222 \
  -e REPOSITORY_USERNAME=admin \
  -e REPOSITORY_PASSWORD=admin \
  -v "$(pwd)/docker/workspace:/var/lib/athene/workspace" \
  -v "$(pwd)/docker/config:/var/lib/athene/config" \
  -v "$(pwd)/docker/logs:/var/lib/athene/logs" \
  jadaptive/athene:latest

If you need HTTPS certificates, upload limits, auth policy tuning, or production-oriented runtime notes, use the full Docker guide: 02 Install with Docker.

Then:

  1. Create a repository using the Web User Interface
  2. Create a repository using the command line tool
  3. Create a repository using the REST API

Licensing

Athene is available as a fully featured Community Edition Docker container with no user-count gates.

This follows Jadaptive's philosophy: "Software is the Gift, Expertise is the Paywall." In practice, that means core software capabilities are production-ready and broadly available, while commercial licensing focuses on organizational complexity and expert support rather than artificial feature lockouts.

Manifesto: Jadaptive Manifesto

Community Edition

  • Fully featured Athene core experience
  • No seat-based user restrictions
  • Docker-first, self-hosted deployment model

Activation Requirement

Community Edition requires connectivity to activation.jadaptive.com to send anonymous telemetry used for activation heartbeat and service continuity.

Example activation heartbeat payload (application-level):

{
  "instance_id": "4f61f4c2-6bb0-4ce4-b5f7-7a6f2f9f9f1e",
  "product_id": "Athene",
  "version": "0.0.1--",
  "uptime": 86400,
  "registration_text": "",
  "metrics": {
    "Repositories": 8,
    "Users": 20,
    "Tokens": 12,
    "Packages Indexed": 4200,
    "Imports": 180,
    "Sync Jobs": 14
  }
}

No personally identifiable user fields are included in this application telemetry payload (for example: no email addresses, usernames, phone numbers, package payload contents, or private keys).

When a Commercial License Is Needed

A license is required for scenarios that go beyond standard connected community use, including:

  • Air-gapped or offline deployments
  • Technical support requirements
  • Compliance support requirements
  • Select enterprise capabilities, such as multi-tenancy

For operational behavior and local file locations, see:

Documentation Map