Docker is optional. Use it only if you want a containerized gateway or to validate the Docker flow.

Is Docker right for me?

• Yes: you want an isolated, throwaway gateway environment or to run Genesis on a host without local installs.
• No: you are running on your own machine and just want the fastest dev loop. Use the normal install flow instead.
• Sandboxing note: the default sandbox backend uses Docker when sandboxing is enabled, but sandboxing is off by default and does not require the full gateway to run in Docker. SSH and OpenShell sandbox backends are also available. See Sandboxing.

Prerequisites

• Docker Desktop (or Docker Engine) + Docker Compose v2
• At least 2 GB RAM for image build (pnpm install may be OOM-killed on 1 GB hosts with exit 137)
• Enough disk for images and logs
• If running on a VPS/public host, review Security hardening for network exposure, especially Docker DOCKER-USER firewall policy.

Containerized Gateway

Build the image

From the repo root, run the setup script:

```bash
./scripts/docker/setup.sh
```

This builds the gateway image locally. To use a pre-built image instead:

```bash
export GENESIS_IMAGE="ghcr.io/genesis/genesis:latest"
./scripts/docker/setup.sh
```

Pre-built images are published at the
[GitHub Container Registry](https://github.com/PIXELZX0/Genesis/pkgs/container/genesis).
Common tags: `main`, `latest`, `<version>` (e.g. `2026.2.26`).

Complete onboarding

The setup script runs onboarding automatically. It will:

- prompt for provider API keys
- generate a gateway token and write it to `.env`
- start the gateway via Docker Compose

During setup, pre-start onboarding and config writes run through
`genesis-gateway` directly. `genesis-cli` is for commands you run after
the gateway container already exists.

Open the Control UI

Open `http://127.0.0.1:18789/` in your browser and paste the configured
shared secret into Settings. The setup script writes a token to `.env` by
default; if you switch the container config to password auth, use that
password instead.

Need the URL again?

```bash
docker compose run --rm genesis-cli dashboard --no-open
```

Configure channels (optional)

Use the CLI container to add messaging channels:

```bash
# WhatsApp (QR)
docker compose run --rm genesis-cli channels login

# Telegram
docker compose run --rm genesis-cli channels add --channel telegram --token "<token>"

# Discord
docker compose run --rm genesis-cli channels add --channel discord --token "<token>"
```

Docs: [WhatsApp](/channels/whatsapp), [Telegram](/channels/telegram), [Discord](/channels/discord)

Manual flow

If you prefer to run each step yourself instead of using the setup script:

docker build -t genesis:local -f Dockerfile .
docker compose run --rm --no-deps --entrypoint node genesis-gateway \
  dist/index.js onboard --mode local --no-install-daemon
docker compose run --rm --no-deps --entrypoint node genesis-gateway \
  dist/index.js config set --batch-json '[{"path":"gateway.mode","value":"local"},{"path":"gateway.bind","value":"lan"},{"path":"gateway.controlUi.allowedOrigins","value":["http://localhost:18789","http://127.0.0.1:18789"]}]'
docker compose up -d genesis-gateway

Environment variables

The setup script accepts these optional environment variables:

Health checks

Container probe endpoints (no auth required):

curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:18789/healthz   # liveness
curl -fsS http://127.0.0.1:18789/readyz     # readiness

The Docker image includes a built-in HEALTHCHECK that pings /healthz. If checks keep failing, Docker marks the container as unhealthy and orchestration systems can restart or replace it.

Authenticated deep health snapshot:

docker compose exec genesis-gateway node dist/index.js health --token "$GENESIS_GATEWAY_TOKEN"

LAN vs loopback

scripts/docker/setup.sh defaults GENESIS_GATEWAY_BIND=lan so host access to http://127.0.0.1:18789 works with Docker port publishing.

• lan (default): host browser and host CLI can reach the published gateway port.
• loopback: only processes inside the container network namespace can reach the gateway directly.

Storage and persistence

Docker Compose bind-mounts GENESIS_CONFIG_DIR to /home/node/.genesis and GENESIS_WORKSPACE_DIR to /home/node/.genesis/workspace, so those paths survive container replacement.

That mounted config directory is where Genesis keeps:

• genesis.json for behavior config
• agents/<agentId>/agent/auth-profiles.json for stored provider OAuth/API-key auth
• .env for env-backed runtime secrets such as GENESIS_GATEWAY_TOKEN

For full persistence details on VM deployments, see Docker VM Runtime - What persists where.

Disk growth hotspots: watch media/, session JSONL files, cron/runs/*.jsonl, and rolling file logs under /tmp/genesis/.

Shell helpers (optional)

For easier day-to-day Docker management, install ClawDock:

mkdir -p ~/.clawdock && curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PIXELZX0/Genesis/main/scripts/clawdock/clawdock-helpers.sh -o ~/.clawdock/clawdock-helpers.sh
echo 'source ~/.clawdock/clawdock-helpers.sh' >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc

If you installed ClawDock from the older scripts/shell-helpers/clawdock-helpers.sh raw path, rerun the install command above so your local helper file tracks the new location.

Then use clawdock-start, clawdock-stop, clawdock-dashboard, etc. Run clawdock-help for all commands. See ClawDock for the full helper guide.

Enable agent sandbox for Docker gateway

```bash
export GENESIS_SANDBOX=1
./scripts/docker/setup.sh
```

Custom socket path (e.g. rootless Docker):

```bash
export GENESIS_SANDBOX=1
export GENESIS_DOCKER_SOCKET=/run/user/1000/docker.sock
./scripts/docker/setup.sh
```

The script mounts `docker.sock` only after sandbox prerequisites pass. If
sandbox setup cannot complete, the script resets `agents.defaults.sandbox.mode`
to `off`.

Automation / CI (non-interactive)

Disable Compose pseudo-TTY allocation with `-T`:

```bash
docker compose run -T --rm genesis-cli gateway probe
docker compose run -T --rm genesis-cli devices list --json
```

Shared-network security note

`genesis-cli` uses `network_mode: "service:genesis-gateway"` so CLI
commands can reach the gateway over `127.0.0.1`. Treat this as a shared
trust boundary. The compose config drops `NET_RAW`/`NET_ADMIN` and enables
`no-new-privileges` on `genesis-cli`.

Permissions and EACCES

The image runs as `node` (uid 1000). If you see permission errors on
`/home/node/.genesis`, make sure your host bind mounts are owned by uid 1000:

```bash
sudo chown -R 1000:1000 /path/to/genesis-config /path/to/genesis-workspace
```

Faster rebuilds

Order your Dockerfile so dependency layers are cached. This avoids re-running
`pnpm install` unless lockfiles change:

```dockerfile
FROM node:24-bookworm
RUN curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash
ENV PATH="/root/.bun/bin:${PATH}"
RUN corepack enable
WORKDIR /app
COPY package.json pnpm-lock.yaml pnpm-workspace.yaml .npmrc ./
COPY ui/package.json ./ui/package.json
COPY scripts ./scripts
RUN pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
COPY . .
RUN pnpm build
RUN pnpm ui:install
RUN pnpm ui:build
ENV NODE_ENV=production
CMD ["node","dist/index.js"]
```

Power-user container options

The default image is security-first and runs as non-root `node`. For a more
full-featured container:

1. **Persist `/home/node`**: `export GENESIS_HOME_VOLUME="genesis_home"`
2. **Bake system deps**: `export GENESIS_DOCKER_APT_PACKAGES="git curl jq"`
3. **Install Playwright browsers**:
   ```bash
   docker compose run --rm genesis-cli \
     node /app/node_modules/playwright-core/cli.js install chromium
   ```
4. **Persist browser downloads**: set
   `PLAYWRIGHT_BROWSERS_PATH=/home/node/.cache/ms-playwright` and use
   `GENESIS_HOME_VOLUME` or `GENESIS_EXTRA_MOUNTS`.

OpenAI Codex OAuth (headless Docker)

If you pick OpenAI Codex OAuth in the wizard, it opens a browser URL. In
Docker or headless setups, copy the full redirect URL you land on and paste
it back into the wizard to finish auth.

Base image metadata

The main Docker image uses `node:24-bookworm` and publishes OCI base-image
annotations including `org.opencontainers.image.base.name`,
`org.opencontainers.image.source`, and others. See
[OCI image annotations](https://github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/blob/main/annotations.md).

Running on a VPS?

See Hetzner (Docker VPS) and Docker VM Runtime for shared VM deployment steps including binary baking, persistence, and updates.

Agent Sandbox

When agents.defaults.sandbox is enabled with the Docker backend, the gateway runs agent tool execution (shell, file read/write, etc.) inside isolated Docker containers while the gateway itself stays on the host. This gives you a hard wall around untrusted or multi-tenant agent sessions without containerizing the entire gateway.

Sandbox scope can be per-agent (default), per-session, or shared. Each scope gets its own workspace mounted at /workspace. You can also configure allow/deny tool policies, network isolation, resource limits, and browser containers.

For full configuration, images, security notes, and multi-agent profiles, see:

• Sandboxing -- complete sandbox reference
• OpenShell -- interactive shell access to sandbox containers
• Multi-Agent Sandbox and Tools -- per-agent overrides

Quick enable

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      sandbox: {
        mode: "non-main", // off | non-main | all
        scope: "agent", // session | agent | shared
      },
    },
  },
}

Build the default sandbox image:

scripts/sandbox-setup.sh

Troubleshooting

Image missing or sandbox container not starting

Build the sandbox image with
[`scripts/sandbox-setup.sh`](https://github.com/PIXELZX0/Genesis/blob/main/scripts/sandbox-setup.sh)
or set `agents.defaults.sandbox.docker.image` to your custom image.
Containers are auto-created per session on demand.

Permission errors in sandbox

Set `docker.user` to a UID:GID that matches your mounted workspace ownership,
or chown the workspace folder.

Custom tools not found in sandbox

Genesis runs commands with `sh -lc` (login shell), which sources
`/etc/profile` and may reset PATH. Set `docker.env.PATH` to prepend your
custom tool paths, or add a script under `/etc/profile.d/` in your Dockerfile.

OOM-killed during image build (exit 137)

The VM needs at least 2 GB RAM. Use a larger machine class and retry.

Unauthorized or pairing required in Control UI

Fetch a fresh dashboard link and approve the browser device:

```bash
docker compose run --rm genesis-cli dashboard --no-open
docker compose run --rm genesis-cli devices list
docker compose run --rm genesis-cli devices approve <requestId>
```

More detail: [Dashboard](/web/dashboard), [Devices](/cli/devices).

Gateway target shows ws://172.x.x.x or pairing errors from Docker CLI

Reset gateway mode and bind:

```bash
docker compose run --rm genesis-cli config set --batch-json '[{"path":"gateway.mode","value":"local"},{"path":"gateway.bind","value":"lan"}]'
docker compose run --rm genesis-cli devices list --url ws://127.0.0.1:18789
```

Related

• Install Overview — all installation methods
• Podman — Podman alternative to Docker
• ClawDock — Docker Compose community setup
• Updating — keeping Genesis up to date
• Configuration — gateway configuration after install