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Run the whole stack with Compose

Run Postgres, Redis, the API with the web UI and a worker together on one machine.

docker/compose.yml keeps the default services, Postgres and Redis, for make services. It also adds a stack profile with serve --ui and one worker on the same network.

Prerequisites​

  • Docker, with Compose.
  • make.

Steps​

  1. Copy the environment file and fill it in:

    cp .env.example .env
    # set AFE_API_TOKEN and OPENROUTER_API_KEY (or the key your Model names)

  2. Bring the stack up.

    make compose-up builds afe:dev, starts every service and waits for the healthchecks. make compose-down stops it and removes the containers.

    make compose-up
    # UI and API on http://127.0.0.1:8765, ops on http://127.0.0.1:9464
    make compose-down

  3. Stop everything when you are done.

    make down stops every development service this repository can start: the Compose stack with its Postgres and Redis, Langfuse, the OpenTelemetry Collector and the kind cluster afe. It tries every stop even when one fails, reports the failures and exits non-zero. It leaves volumes and data in place.

    make down

  4. make services is unchanged. It still starts only Postgres and Redis for the tests.

The Docker socket​

The worker mounts /var/run/docker.sock so it can open a ticket's sandbox container. The socket is a laptop-only choice, never a cluster one.

The container runs as a non-root user, so it needs the group that owns the socket. make compose-up reads DOCKER_GID from .env, 0 by default. Set it to your host's Docker group when the default is not enough:

DOCKER_GID=$(getent group docker | cut -d: -f3)

The configuration lives in deploy/kind/config/, mounted at /config. It holds a Runtime that reads the store DSN and the broker URL from the environment, and a demo flow.

Resource limits​

Every container sets a CPU and a memory limit, so a busy service cannot starve the machine. The values live in docker/compose.yml and are a prudent starting point for a shared machine. Lower them on a small host, raise them when a service is throttled.

Troubleshooting​

Symptom: afe serve -c /config in the serve container keeps restarting. Cause: AFE_API_TOKEN is empty in .env, so the server refuses to start. Fix: set AFE_API_TOKEN in .env and run make compose-up again.

Symptom: the worker logs a permission error opening the sandbox container. Cause: DOCKER_GID in .env does not match the group that owns /var/run/docker.sock on the host. Fix: set DOCKER_GID with the command above, then restart the stack.

Symptom: make compose-up fails because port 8765 or 9464 is already in use. Cause: another afe serve process, or a previous stack, is already bound to that port. Fix: stop it first, for example with make down, then run make compose-up again.

See also​