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Self-hosting

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Self-hosting

Run the RocketRide engine on your own machine when you want full control over where data and model calls go. It is the same engine that powers Cloud; only the operator changes.

Fastest path: the VS Code extension manages a local runtime for you while you build, with no manual setup. Use the steps below when you want to run the engine as a standalone service.

Pick one way to get the engine, then follow Set up and start listening.

Get the engine​

Option A: Download a release build​

No build toolchain required, grab a prebuilt runtime.

  1. Open the releases page and choose the latest RocketRide Server release (tags look like server-v3.2.2; ignore the client and extension releases).

  2. Download the archive for your platform:

    PlatformAsset
    Linux (x64)rocketride-server-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz
    macOS (Apple Silicon)rocketride-server-<version>-darwin-arm64.tar.gz
    Windows (x64)rocketride-server-<version>-win64.zip

  3. Extract it. The folder is your runtime directory: it contains the engine binary and its ai/ runtime.

tar -xzf rocketride-server-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz -C rocketride-engine
cd rocketride-engine

Option B: Clone and build from source​

  1. Clone the repository:

    git clone https://github.com/rocketride-org/rocketride-server.git
    cd rocketride-server

  2. Install dependencies (the repo is a pnpm workspace; this also wires up the ./builder CLI):

    pnpm install

  3. Build (or fetch) the engine. This populates dist/server/, which is your runtime directory:

    ./builder build server

Set up and start listening​

Both options leave you with a runtime directory (the extracted archive, or dist/server/).

On Linux, install the runtime dependencies (libc++1, libc++abi1, libgomp1) before starting:

# Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install libc++1 libc++abi1 libgomp1
# Fedora / RHEL
sudo dnf install libcxx libcxxabi libgomp
# Alpine
sudo apk add libc++ libgomp

From inside the runtime directory, start the engine:

# Linux / macOS
./engine ./ai/eaas.py --host=0.0.0.0

# Windows
engine.exe ./ai/eaas.py --host=0.0.0.0

The engine now listens for the WebSocket protocol on port 5565. Use --host=127.0.0.1 to bind to localhost only.

Alternative: full stack with Docker (Option B only)​

If you cloned the repo and want the engine plus its bundled data stores (PostgreSQL, Milvus, ChromaDB) in one command, use the Compose stack instead of running the binary directly. Requires Docker Engine >= 24.0 and Docker Compose v2

= 2.17:

./builder build server       # the Compose image is built from dist/server/
cd docker
cp .env.example .env         # change every password before non-local use
docker compose up engine     # engine + its required PostgreSQL

docker compose up (no service) starts all vector stores too.

Verify it is running​

The engine serves a health endpoint on port 5565:

curl http://localhost:5565/ping

Connect a client​

Point any SDK or the CLI at the engine. A local engine typically needs no auth token:

ROCKETRIDE_URI=ws://localhost:5565
import { RocketRideClient } from 'rocketride';

const client = new RocketRideClient({ uri: 'ws://localhost:5565' });
await client.connect();

Expose the engine beyond localhost and you should put it behind TLS and authentication (set ROCKETRIDE_APIKEY). For a clustered deployment, see the Helm chart under deploy/helm/rocketride/.

Provider credentials​

Pipelines that call external models or stores need those providers' API keys. Supply them as environment variables in the engine's environment (never committed); a node's config references the variable rather than the literal secret. See Nodes for each provider's required keys.