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Try it locally

This page gets Lalabase running on your own computer, without a domain, a certificate or a mail server. It suits a trial. For a server, use Docker Compose instead; to work on the code, use DEVELOPMENT.md.

You need Docker Desktop (Docker 24 or later with Compose v2) and about 4 GB of memory for it. Apple Silicon and Intel both work.

Install

Get the latest release and write a .env with fresh keys. Copy all of it at once:

git clone https://github.com/lalabase/lalabase.git
cd lalabase
git checkout "$(git tag --list '[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9].[0-9]*.[0-9]*' --sort=-v:refname | head -1)"

cat > .env <<EOF
LALABASE_HOST=localhost:3000
LALABASE_PORT=3000
LALABASE_FORCE_SSL=false
SECRET_KEY_BASE=$(openssl rand -hex 64)
ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_PRIMARY_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_DETERMINISTIC_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_KEY_DERIVATION_SALT=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
POSTGRES_PASSWORD=$(openssl rand -hex 24)
EOF

docker compose up -d

Is port 3000 taken already, say by another Rails application? Then change both lines, for example to LALABASE_HOST=localhost:3100 and LALABASE_PORT=3100. Lalabase only answers to the address in LALABASE_HOST.

Wait until docker compose ps shows web as healthy.

For a trial only

LALABASE_FORCE_SSL=false turns off the redirect to HTTPS and secure cookies. It has no place on a server reachable from the internet.

Create the admin and your first user

Create the instance admin. The command asks for an email address and a password of at least 12 characters:

docker compose exec web bin/rails lalabase:setup

Then create your user without any mail:

  1. Sign in at http://localhost:3000/admin.
  2. Open http://localhost:3000/admin/users/new, enter a name and an email address and name a new organisation.
  3. Note the temporary password in the message at the top of the next page. It appears only this once.
  4. Sign in with it at http://localhost:3000/users/sign_in and change the password.

The command itself points you to the registration at /users/sign_up. Skip that here: without mail the confirmation never arrives, and the account is locked after three days.

Stop and remove

docker compose stop        # stop; your data stays
docker compose start       # start again
docker compose down -v     # remove everything, including all data

Next steps