DB-less or database mode?

Kong Course · lesson 10 of 15 · 4 min read

A genuine architectural fork - and the one that decides how you deploy.

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Key points

  • DB-less: the whole config is one YAML file loaded at boot. No database to run or back up.
  • That makes Kong a stateless container - perfect for GitOps, where config is reviewed and versioned.
  • Database mode stores config in Postgres and you change it live through the Admin API.
  • Some features need a database: anything storing runtime state, like OAuth2 tokens or rate-limit counters.
  • Most Kubernetes deployments are DB-less; long-lived platform installs with many teams often are not.

DB-less trades live edits for a stateless, reviewable deployment - the right default unless you need stored state.

Upstreams, targets and health Declarative config and decK

This is a reading copy. The full lesson — with the visual explainer, the interactive lab and a Run button for the code — lives in the Kong Course course, and every lesson in it is listed on the Kong Course contents page.