Genesis Docs

Genesis on Hetzner (Docker, Production VPS Guide)

Goal

Run a persistent Genesis Gateway on a Hetzner VPS using Docker, with durable state, baked-in binaries, and safe restart behavior.

If you want “Genesis 24/7 for ~$5”, this is the simplest reliable setup. Hetzner pricing changes; pick the smallest Debian/Ubuntu VPS and scale up if you hit OOMs.

Security model reminder:

  • Company-shared agents are fine when everyone is in the same trust boundary and the runtime is business-only.
  • Keep strict separation: dedicated VPS/runtime + dedicated accounts; no personal Apple/Google/browser/password-manager profiles on that host.
  • If users are adversarial to each other, split by gateway/host/OS user.

See Security and VPS hosting.

What are we doing (simple terms)?

  • Rent a small Linux server (Hetzner VPS)
  • Install Docker (isolated app runtime)
  • Start the Genesis Gateway in Docker
  • Persist ~/.genesis + ~/.genesis/workspace on the host (survives restarts/rebuilds)
  • Access the Control UI from your laptop via an SSH tunnel

That mounted ~/.genesis state includes genesis.json, per-agent agents/<agentId>/agent/auth-profiles.json, and .env.

The Gateway can be accessed via:

  • SSH port forwarding from your laptop
  • Direct port exposure if you manage firewalling and tokens yourself

This guide assumes Ubuntu or Debian on Hetzner.
If you are on another Linux VPS, map packages accordingly. For the generic Docker flow, see Docker.

Quick path (experienced operators)

  1. Provision Hetzner VPS
  2. Install Docker
  3. Clone Genesis repository
  4. Create persistent host directories
  5. Configure .env and docker-compose.yml
  6. Bake required binaries into the image
  7. docker compose up -d
  8. Verify persistence and Gateway access

What you need

  • Hetzner VPS with root access
  • SSH access from your laptop
  • Basic comfort with SSH + copy/paste
  • ~20 minutes
  • Docker and Docker Compose
  • Model auth credentials
  • Optional provider credentials
    • WhatsApp QR
    • Telegram bot token
    • Gmail OAuth

Provision the VPS

Create an Ubuntu or Debian VPS in Hetzner.

Connect as root:

```bash
ssh root@YOUR_VPS_IP
```

This guide assumes the VPS is stateful.
Do not treat it as disposable infrastructure.

Install Docker (on the VPS)

```bash
apt-get update
apt-get install -y git curl ca-certificates
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com | sh
```

Verify:

```bash
docker --version
docker compose version
```

Clone the Genesis repository

```bash
git clone https://github.com/PIXELZX0/Genesis.git
cd genesis
```

This guide assumes you will build a custom image to guarantee binary persistence.

Create persistent host directories

Docker containers are ephemeral.
All long-lived state must live on the host.

```bash
mkdir -p /root/.genesis/workspace

# Set ownership to the container user (uid 1000):
chown -R 1000:1000 /root/.genesis
```

Configure environment variables

Create `.env` in the repository root.

```bash
GENESIS_IMAGE=genesis:latest
GENESIS_GATEWAY_TOKEN=
GENESIS_GATEWAY_BIND=lan
GENESIS_GATEWAY_PORT=18789

GENESIS_CONFIG_DIR=/root/.genesis
GENESIS_WORKSPACE_DIR=/root/.genesis/workspace

GOG_KEYRING_PASSWORD=
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/home/node/.genesis
```

Leave `GENESIS_GATEWAY_TOKEN` blank unless you explicitly want to
manage it through `.env`; Genesis writes a random gateway token to
config on first start. Generate a keyring password and paste it into
`GOG_KEYRING_PASSWORD`:

```bash
openssl rand -hex 32
```

**Do not commit this file.**

This `.env` file is for container/runtime env such as `GENESIS_GATEWAY_TOKEN`.
Stored provider OAuth/API-key auth lives in the mounted
`~/.genesis/agents/<agentId>/agent/auth-profiles.json`.

Docker Compose configuration

Create or update `docker-compose.yml`.

```yaml
services:
  genesis-gateway:
    image: ${GENESIS_IMAGE}
    build: .
    restart: unless-stopped
    env_file:
      - .env
    environment:
      - HOME=/home/node
      - NODE_ENV=production
      - TERM=xterm-256color
      - GENESIS_GATEWAY_BIND=${GENESIS_GATEWAY_BIND}
      - GENESIS_GATEWAY_PORT=${GENESIS_GATEWAY_PORT}
      - GENESIS_GATEWAY_TOKEN=${GENESIS_GATEWAY_TOKEN}
      - GOG_KEYRING_PASSWORD=${GOG_KEYRING_PASSWORD}
      - XDG_CONFIG_HOME=${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}
      - PATH=/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
    volumes:
      - ${GENESIS_CONFIG_DIR}:/home/node/.genesis
      - ${GENESIS_WORKSPACE_DIR}:/home/node/.genesis/workspace
    ports:
      # Recommended: keep the Gateway loopback-only on the VPS; access via SSH tunnel.
      # To expose it publicly, remove the `127.0.0.1:` prefix and firewall accordingly.
      - "127.0.0.1:${GENESIS_GATEWAY_PORT}:18789"
    command:
      [
        "node",
        "dist/index.js",
        "gateway",
        "--bind",
        "${GENESIS_GATEWAY_BIND}",
        "--port",
        "${GENESIS_GATEWAY_PORT}",
        "--allow-unconfigured",
      ]
```

`--allow-unconfigured` is only for bootstrap convenience, it is not a replacement for a proper gateway configuration. Still set auth (`gateway.auth.token` or password) and use safe bind settings for your deployment.

Shared Docker VM runtime steps

Use the shared runtime guide for the common Docker host flow:

- [Bake required binaries into the image](/install/docker-vm-runtime#bake-required-binaries-into-the-image)
- [Build and launch](/install/docker-vm-runtime#build-and-launch)
- [What persists where](/install/docker-vm-runtime#what-persists-where)
- [Updates](/install/docker-vm-runtime#updates)

Hetzner-specific access

After the shared build and launch steps, tunnel from your laptop:

```bash
ssh -N -L 18789:127.0.0.1:18789 root@YOUR_VPS_IP
```

Open:

`http://127.0.0.1:18789/`

Paste the configured shared secret. This guide uses the gateway token by
default; if you switched to password auth, use that password instead.

The shared persistence map lives in Docker VM Runtime.

Infrastructure as Code (Terraform)

For teams preferring infrastructure-as-code workflows, a community-maintained Terraform setup provides:

  • Modular Terraform configuration with remote state management
  • Automated provisioning via cloud-init
  • Deployment scripts (bootstrap, deploy, backup/restore)
  • Security hardening (firewall, UFW, SSH-only access)
  • SSH tunnel configuration for gateway access

Repositories:

This approach complements the Docker setup above with reproducible deployments, version-controlled infrastructure, and automated disaster recovery.

Note: Community-maintained. For issues or contributions, see the repository links above.

Next steps

Related