Quick start

This runs InterLock and a small sample shop database with Docker Compose, then walks one agent from nothing to a governed, redacted, audited query. It takes about ten minutes. You need Docker with Compose, curl, and optionally psql.

1. Start it

From a clone of the repository:

docker compose --profile quickstart up -d --wait

This starts the gateway, the admin console, two workers, PostgreSQL and Redis for InterLock itself, and sample-postgres, a database named shop with customers and orders tables. Every port binds to 127.0.0.1 only:

Service	Address
Admin console	http://127.0.0.1:9090
Gateway, HTTP and MCP	http://127.0.0.1:3001
Gateway, PostgreSQL wire	127.0.0.1:5434

2. Sign in and set a password

Open http://127.0.0.1:9090 and sign in as admin with the password admin. The console asks for a new password straight away (at least 12 characters) and opens nothing else until you set one.

3. Register the sample database

The sample database lives on the Compose network, which is a private address, and a source on a private address has to allow that explicitly. The console form has no such option, so this step uses the admin API. Put the password you just chose in ADMIN_PASSWORD:

ADMIN=http://127.0.0.1:9090
curl -sS -c cookies.txt -X POST "$ADMIN/auth/login" \
  --data-urlencode username=admin --data-urlencode "password=$ADMIN_PASSWORD"
CSRF="$(curl -sS -b cookies.txt "$ADMIN/auth/csrf" | python3 -c 'import json,sys; print(json.load(sys.stdin)["csrf"])')"

curl -sS -b cookies.txt -X POST "$ADMIN/api/data-sources" \
  -H "X-CSRF-Token: $CSRF" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"name": "Sample shop", "source_type": "postgresql", "connector_key": "postgresql",
       "connection_config": {"host": "sample-postgres", "port": 5432, "database": "shop",
         "user": "shop_reader", "password": "shop-reader-dev-only",
         "allow_private_egress": true}}'

The source is created as sample_shop: the ID is generated from the name, and agents use it to name the source. Back in the console, Data Sources now lists it; open it and use Test Connection to confirm InterLock can reach it.

Note

The inline password is for this local sample only. Real sources reference their secrets, for example "password_ref": "env://SHOP_PASSWORD"; see Register a source.

4. Give it a role

A source role lists what an agent granted it may do. On the Sample shop page, under Source Roles, choose New Role:

• Role key reader, Name Reader.
• One statement: effect allow, action db.table.select, resource type db.table, pattern public.*.

Save it.

5. Allow reads by policy

Policies are checked after roles, in priority order (higher first); the first rule that matches decides, and a request no rule matches is denied. Open Policies, choose New Policy, and create:

• Name allow-sample-shop-reads, Priority 10.
• Source ID sample_shop, Operation read.
• Effect allow.

6. Create an agent and its key

Open Identities, choose New Identity:

• Name quickstart-agent, Agent type claude_code.
• Under Source access, add Sample shop with the Reader role.
• Leave Auto-generate API key ticked and save.

The key is shown once. Copy it into API_KEY.

7. Send a governed query

With psql, the database name picks the source and the API key is the password:

PGPASSWORD="$API_KEY" psql "host=127.0.0.1 port=5434 user=agent dbname=sample_shop sslmode=disable" \
  -c "SELECT name, email, plan FROM customers ORDER BY id LIMIT 3"

    name     |      email       |    plan
-------------+------------------+------------
 Ada Park    | [REDACTED:EMAIL] | team
 Ben Okafor  | [REDACTED:EMAIL] | free
 Chloe Varga | [REDACTED:EMAIL] | enterprise

The email addresses left the database and were redacted on the way out. The same query over MCP:

curl -sS http://127.0.0.1:3001/mcp \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_KEY" -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Accept: application/json, text/event-stream' -H 'MCP-Protocol-Version: 2025-11-25' \
  -d '{"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "tools/call", "params": {"name": "interlock_query",
       "arguments": {"source_id": "sample_shop", "sql": "SELECT name, email FROM customers LIMIT 3"}}}'

Now try a write the role does not allow:

PGPASSWORD="$API_KEY" psql "host=127.0.0.1 port=5434 user=agent dbname=sample_shop sslmode=disable" \
  -c "DELETE FROM orders WHERE id = 1"

It is refused with Source role denied, and nothing reaches the database.

8. See what happened

Open Audit & Costs. Each query is a row: the identity, the source, the protocol, whether it was allowed, and whether PII was redacted. The refused delete is there too, marked denied.

Next

• First governed query from Claude Code: connect a real agent to the same source.
• Concepts: how the pieces fit together.
• To stop everything: docker compose --profile quickstart down. Add -v to delete the data as well.