Overview

This guide walks you through deploying Manifold locally using Docker. Follow these steps to get up and running quickly.

Prerequisites

  • Docker installed and running
  • Git for cloning and updating submodules
  • An OpenAI API key (for AI features)

Step 1: Prepare Environment Files

Rename the example environment and config files:

cp example.env .env
cp config.yaml.example config.yaml

Step 2: Configure OpenAI API Key

Edit your .env file to set your real OpenAI API key:

# Replace test123 with your actual key
sed -i '' 's/^OPENAI_API_KEY="[^"]*"/OPENAI_API_KEY="your-key-here"/' .env

Step 3: Update Submodules

Initialize and update git submodules:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Step 4: Create Log File

Create a log file for Manifold:

touch manifold.log

To enable web search and fetch without SearXNG, pull the DuckDuckGo container:

docker pull mcp/duckduckgo

Step 6: Deploy Manifold

Start the minimal deployment (this may take a few minutes):

docker compose up -d manifold pg-manifold

Access the Web UI

Once containers are running, open your browser and go to:

http://localhost:32180

Troubleshooting

  • Check manifold.log for errors.
  • The most common issue is database DSN misconfiguration. Ensure your .env and config.yaml match the Docker Compose settings for the pg-manifold service.

For more details, see the Manifold Documentation or contact the development team.