ThothII/docs/install/local.md

Install ThothII on a local PC or Mac

This guide installs one loopback-only ThothII on the same Windows, macOS, or Linux computer that runs Docker. The supported application is one Docker Compose distribution containing exactly frontend and core; Pi is pinned inside core. DWH, vector database, embedding, and LLM remain external configurable services even when they run on this computer.

No host Pi, Node.js, Python, Go toolchain, Docker socket in core, or browser shell is required. Commands that contain example paths must be changed to absolute paths on your computer.

Choose your platform

• macOS: use Terminal and Docker Desktop. Apple Silicon and Intel are supported by the local image build.
• Windows PowerShell: use Docker Desktop with its WSL2 engine, Git for Windows, the Windows build launcher, and thothctl-windows-amd64.exe.
• Windows WSL2 (recommended): enable Docker Desktop integration for your Linux distribution, clone under /home/<user> rather than /mnt/c, and follow the Linux shell commands.
• Linux PC: use Docker Engine plus the Compose v2 plugin and the Linux thothctl binary.

Windows users must also read Windows and WSL2 line endings before the first build.

Prerequisites

Install only:

1. Git 2.39 or newer.
2. Docker Desktop on macOS/Windows, or Docker Engine on Linux.
3. Docker Compose v2 (docker compose, not legacy docker-compose).
4. About 10 GB of free disk for source, images, build cache, and initial volumes.
5. Network access to the workspace Git remote and configured DWH/vector/embedding/LLM endpoints.

Verify the tools:

git --version
docker version
docker compose version
docker run --rm hello-world

On Linux, add the operator to the Docker group only if local policy permits it; sign out and back in afterward. A local installation needs no inbound firewall rule because ports bind only to 127.0.0.1.

Clone and verify LF

Use a git clone command that disables automatic CRLF conversion for this checkout.

macOS and Linux:

git -c core.autocrlf=false clone https://github.example.invalid/your-org/ThothII.git
cd ThothII
git config --local core.autocrlf false
bash scripts/verify-line-endings.sh

Windows PowerShell:

git -c core.autocrlf=false clone https://github.example.invalid/your-org/ThothII.git
Set-Location ThothII
git config --local core.autocrlf false
& "C:\Program Files\Git\bin\bash.exe" scripts/verify-line-endings.sh

Windows WSL2:

mkdir -p "$HOME/src" && cd "$HOME/src"
git -c core.autocrlf=false clone https://github.example.invalid/your-org/ThothII.git
cd ThothII
git config --local core.autocrlf false
bash scripts/verify-line-endings.sh

Stop if the verifier names any path. Do not build from a CRLF checkout.

Create the local operator files

Copy the non-secret template. This untracked .env contains addresses and absolute source paths, never secret values:

cp deploy/env/local.env.example deploy/env/local.env
mkdir -p /absolute/path/to/thothii-operator/secrets
chmod 0700 /absolute/path/to/thothii-operator/secrets

Edit deploy/env/local.env. At minimum set the workspace Git remote, PI_AUTH_FILE, THT_SECRETS_FILE, external service endpoints, and the absolute THT_WORKSPACE_BINDINGS_ENV_FILE. Create each secret as a separate regular file under the protected operator directory and set mode 0600. On Windows use a user-only ACL instead.

Do not paste credentials into this guide's commands, .env, workspace YAML, Git, URLs, image build arguments, or the installation descriptor. Secret contents are mounted read-only under /run/secrets (Pi's auth store has its own protected read-only mount) and must never be committed, embedded, rendered, or logged.

Follow the local workspace-registry guide to create the bindings file, choose exactly one Git SSH/HTTPS override, and generate the connector-secret override. A fresh install requires a valid private workspace repository; the Git-backed registry remains the source of truth.

Copy the installation example to an operator-controlled file named exactly thothii-installation.yaml, then replace all placeholders with absolute paths:

cp docs/install/examples/thothii-installation.local.yaml \
  /absolute/path/to/thothii-operator/thothii-installation.yaml

For HTTPS, replace the SSH override in that file with deploy/compose.git-https.yaml. Add only reviewed local overrides, including the generated connector-secret file. Paths may contain spaces when correctly represented as YAML strings.

Native Windows uses the same four fields. Use single-quoted absolute Windows paths so backslashes remain literal YAML characters:

profile: local
projectDirectory: 'C:\Users\operator\src\ThothII'
envFile: 'C:\Users\operator\src\ThothII\deploy\env\local.env'
overrides:
  - 'C:\Users\operator\src\ThothII\deploy\compose.git-ssh.yaml'
  - 'C:\Users\operator\thothii-operator\connector-secrets.local.yaml'

Address external services

An address is interpreted inside core. Therefore container 127.0.0.1 means the container itself, not the Docker host. Keep every DWH, vector, embedding, and LLM address configurable in the local environment/workspace bindings.

• Docker Desktop (macOS and Windows): use host.docker.internal, for example http://host.docker.internal:11434.
• Linux: if a service runs on the host, create an untracked override and include its absolute path in thothii-installation.yaml:

services:
  core:
    extra_hosts:
      - "host.docker.internal:host-gateway"

Then use host.docker.internal in the endpoint. extra_hosts: host.docker.internal:host-gateway is a host routing aid, not a bundled service. Prefer a real DNS name for independently operated services; retain TLS and authentication even when co-located.

Build ThothII and thothctl

From the repository root, macOS/Linux/WSL2 users run:

bash scripts/build-local.sh
bash scripts/build-thothctl.sh

Native PowerShell users run:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File scripts/build-local.ps1
& "C:\Program Files\Git\bin\bash.exe" scripts/build-thothctl.sh

The second command uses Docker to create native operator binaries under dist/thothctl; users do not need to know or install Go. Select thothctl-darwin-arm64 or -amd64 on macOS, thothctl-linux-amd64 or -arm64 on Linux/WSL2, and thothctl-windows-amd64.exe on Windows. Copy the selected file to the protected operator directory and, on macOS/Linux, run chmod 0755 on it.

Start and verify

Set convenient variables (PowerShell users use $THTCTL and $INSTALLATION with & $THTCTL): Every operator call has the form thothctl --installation <absolute-descriptor> <command>.

THTCTL=/absolute/path/to/thothii-operator/thothctl
INSTALLATION=/absolute/path/to/thothii-operator/thothii-installation.yaml
"$THTCTL" --installation "$INSTALLATION" update --check-only
"$THTCTL" --installation "$INSTALLATION" start
"$THTCTL" --installation "$INSTALLATION" status
"$THTCTL" --installation "$INSTALLATION" doctor

Native PowerShell uses the same order:

$THTCTL = 'C:\Users\operator\thothii-operator\thothctl.exe'
$INSTALLATION = 'C:\Users\operator\thothii-operator\thothii-installation.yaml'
& $THTCTL --installation $INSTALLATION update --check-only
& $THTCTL --installation $INSTALLATION start
& $THTCTL --installation $INSTALLATION status
& $THTCTL --installation $INSTALLATION doctor

Wait for both services, then check the same-origin frontend and direct loopback core:

curl --fail http://127.0.0.1:8080/health
curl --fail http://127.0.0.1:8787/health
"$THTCTL" --installation "$INSTALLATION" pi doctor
"$THTCTL" --installation "$INSTALLATION" pi test

Open http://127.0.0.1:8080. If a check fails, run thothctl ... logs or pi logs; these are bounded and sanitize declared secrets. Do not publish either loopback port.

Update an installation

Commit or back up local operator changes first. Application source updates are separate from Pi lifecycle updates:

"$THTCTL" --installation "$INSTALLATION" stop
git status --short
git pull --ff-only
git config --local core.autocrlf false
bash scripts/verify-line-endings.sh
bash scripts/build-local.sh
bash scripts/build-thothctl.sh
"$THTCTL" --installation "$INSTALLATION" update --check-only
"$THTCTL" --installation "$INSTALLATION" start
curl --fail http://127.0.0.1:8080/health

On native Windows use the PowerShell build launcher and the Git-for-Windows Bash LF check. Review release notes before updating. Pi has its own transactional pi update and rollback workflow in Pi management; never install a package in the running container.

Back up and restore

Back up before source/Pi updates and test restoration periodically. First stop cleanly:

"$THTCTL" --installation "$INSTALLATION" stop
docker volume ls --format '{{.Name}}' | grep '^thothii-'

Identify the four exact volumes belonging to this installation: settings, pi-state, workspace-registry, and sessions. Confirm their Compose project label with docker volume inspect. For each exact volume, archive it to a protected backup directory:

BACKUP_DIR=/absolute/path/to/backups/2026-08-05
VOLUME=exact-installation-volume-name
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
docker run --rm -v "$VOLUME:/source:ro" -v "$BACKUP_DIR:/backup" \
  alpine:3.22 tar -C /source -czf "/backup/$VOLUME.tgz" .

Native PowerShell can run the same read-only archive container:

$BackupDir = 'C:\Users\operator\thothii-backups\2026-08-05'
$Volume = 'exact-installation-volume-name'
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force $BackupDir | Out-Null
docker run --rm -v "${Volume}:/source:ro" -v "${BackupDir}:/backup" `
  alpine:3.22 tar -C /source -czf "/backup/${Volume}.tgz" .

Also back up the installation descriptor, operator environment, generated overrides, and secret files to separate encrypted/protected storage. Never commit them. Record image digests and the Git revision. Do not back up while containers are running.

Restore only while stopped and only into a new, verified-empty exact target volume. Test the archive in a disposable installation first:

TARGET_VOLUME=exact-empty-target-volume-name
ARCHIVE=/absolute/path/to/backups/2026-08-05/exact-volume-name.tgz
docker run --rm -v "$TARGET_VOLUME:/target" alpine:3.22 \
  sh -c 'test -z "$(ls -A /target)"'
docker run --rm -v "$TARGET_VOLUME:/target" -v "$(dirname "$ARCHIVE"):/backup:ro" \
  alpine:3.22 tar -C /target -xzf "/backup/$(basename "$ARCHIVE")"

Restore all four volumes from the same backup set, restore protected operator files separately, then run update --check-only, start, doctor, registry status/diagnostics, and a known session before normal use. Never merge an archive into a non-empty volume.

Data-preserving uninstall

Run thothctl stop, retain the installation descriptor at the same absolute path, and make one verified backup set. In Docker Desktop, remove only this installation's stopped core and frontend containers and optional local images; leave its four named volumes. On Linux, use the containers' exact Compose project labels to remove only those stopped containers. Do not prune global Docker data.

Do not run docker compose down --volumes: it deletes the application data this procedure is meant to preserve. Keep the operator directory and protected secrets if you intend to reinstall. Using the same descriptor path preserves the thothctl project identity and reconnects the same named volumes after rebuilding the source checkout.

Next: workspaces and Pi

Complete local workspace-registry installation, including Git trust, bindings, pull, validation, diagnostics, and registry recovery. Then use Pi management for provider/model configuration, smoke testing, transactional update, and rollback.

The Git-backed workspace registry is always the workspace source of truth. Local DWH, vector, embedding, or LLM processes remain independent services and are never added to the mandatory ThothII core.