Docker

AgEnD can run as one container holding a whole fleet, supervised by Docker. You don’t write the files yourself: AgEnD in Docker is a runbook written for an agent. Give it to General, or to any agent, and it asks you a few questions, sets up the container, and maintains it afterwards. General agents have a docker-install skill that points to it.

On a server you keep, the regular install (Getting Started) with a systemd or launchd service is still the recommended path. Docker suits trials, demos, and machines where you’d rather not install Node.js and tmux.

What you get

• A non-root user (uid 1000), with tini as PID 1.
• AgEnD’s data and every AI CLI’s install and login in a named volume, so a rebuild keeps them.
• The dashboard on the host’s 127.0.0.1:19280 only.
• The image installs the published npm package (AGEND_VERSION: latest for the newest stable, beta, or an exact version). AgEnD itself has nothing Docker-specific.

What the agent asks you

• Which AI backends to install (claude-code, codex, kiro-cli, grok, opencode, antigravity, muse), and whether to pin a CLI version.
• Web only, or also a Telegram or Discord bot (then the bot token, the group or server id, and your user id).
• Linux, or Docker Desktop on macOS or Windows (WSL), and the CPU architecture.
• Which AgEnD version.

It needs docker compose v2.24 or newer. Tokens and API keys go only in .env, never in fleet.yaml or a chat.

Keep it running

Do	How
Update AgEnD	set AGEND_VERSION in .env (or keep latest), then docker compose build --pull --no-cache and docker compose up -d
Restart, stop, start	docker compose restart, docker compose stop, docker compose up -d
Back up	while stopped, the runbook’s steps pack the volumes into tar files

Never run agend update, agend restart, agend stop or agend install inside the container, and don’t send /update in the chat: the container has no systemd, and an update inside it is rolled back by the next start of the image. The fleet’s daily “new version available” notice still says /update; update by rebuilding instead.

What works in Docker

	Regular install	Docker
Web dashboard and web chat	✅	✅
Telegram / Discord	✅	✅
All seven backends	✅	✅
/login for claude-code, codex, kiro-cli, grok	✅	✅
agend update / /update	✅	❌
agend restart / stop / install	✅	❌
A systemd / launchd service	✅	❌
sudo inside an instance’s work	✅	❌

The runbook also covers logs, watching or typing into an instance, adding a backend or an instance, and troubleshooting (including a WSL bind-mount trap).