## When to Deploy Your Assistant  
The best time to deploy your assistant and make it available to test users is once it can handle the most important happy paths or is what we call a [minimum viable assistant](https://legacy-docs-oss.rasa.com/docs/rasa/next/glossary). Then you can use incoming conversations to inform further development of your assistant.

## Recommended Deployment Method  
The [Rasa Helm Chart](https://github.com/RasaHQ/helm-charts/tree/main/charts/rasa) is the production ready method to deploy your assistant on a Kubernetes or Openshift cluster. For details, see the [deployment instructions](https://legacy-docs-oss.rasa.com/docs/rasa/next/deploy/deploy-rasa).

### Cluster Requirements  
To install the Rasa Helm Chart, you need an existing [Kubernetes cluster](https://kubernetes.io/) or [OpenShift cluster](https://www.openshift.com/). If you don't have one yet, you can get a managed cluster from a cloud provider like:

- [Google Cloud](https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine),
- [DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/products/kubernetes/),
- [Microsoft Azure](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/kubernetes-service/), or
- [Amazon EKS](https://aws.amazon.com/eks/).

## Alternative Deployment Methods  
The following deployment methods are not suited to a production deployment, but can be useful for development and testing:

- [Running an assistant locally on the command line](https://legacy-docs-oss.rasa.com/docs/rasa/next/command-line-interface#rasa-run)
- [Developing an assistant in a Docker container](https://legacy-docs-oss.rasa.com/docs/rasa/next/docker/building-in-docker)
- [Deploying an assistant with Docker Compose](https://legacy-docs-oss.rasa.com/docs/rasa/next/docker/deploying-in-docker-compose)