Local Docker

The fastest way to run ByteChef locally. This starts both PostgreSQL and ByteChef in a single command.

Requirement: Docker Desktop

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bytechefhq/bytechef/master/docker-compose.yml
docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up

Once running, open http://localhost:8080/login and click Create account to register the first user and get started.

The Compose file keeps PostgreSQL's data in a named volume, storage_db. Everything you build - workflows, connections, and execution history - lives there, so docker compose down -v (note the -v) deletes all of it. Plain docker compose down stops the containers and leaves the volume intact.

ByteChef encrypts stored connection credentials with an instance-wide key. Under the default filesystem provider that key is generated on first start and written to ~/.bytechef/key, so the Compose file mounts your ~/.bytechef directory into the container. Keeping the key on the host rather than inside the container has three consequences: it survives recreating the container, docker compose down -v does not touch it, and a server you run outside Docker uses the very same key - the same connections stay readable either way.

That same directory holds anything else ByteChef keeps on the host, so running on H2 puts the database file there too - see the Single container (H2) tab. The path is identical whether ByteChef runs in Docker or directly on your machine, because it resolves against the home directory of the user the server runs as.

Back the key up alongside the database. A database restored without its key is a database of undecryptable credentials.

For a multi-replica deployment, or any host where you would rather hold the key in a secret manager, set BYTECHEF_ENCRYPTION_PROVIDER=property with your own BYTECHEF_ENCRYPTION_PROPERTY_KEY instead. See Configuration.

To point ByteChef at a PostgreSQL server you run yourself instead, override the datasource settings on the bytechef service:

services:
  bytechef:
    environment:
      BYTECHEF_DATASOURCE_URL: jdbc:postgresql://your-host:5432/bytechef
      BYTECHEF_DATASOURCE_USERNAME: postgres
      BYTECHEF_DATASOURCE_PASSWORD: your_password

To drop the database server altogether, run ByteChef on H2 with a Compose file holding a single service. The ~/.bytechef mount carries both the encryption key and the H2 database, so there is no named volume to manage:

services:
  bytechef:
    container_name: bytechef
    image: docker.bytechef.io/bytechef/bytechef:latest
    environment:
      - BYTECHEF_DATABASE=h2
    volumes:
      - ~/.bytechef:/root/.bytechef
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"

H2 is for evaluation only - see the Single container (H2) tab for what it does and does not support.