DreamerDreamer

Running Dreamer Local Engine on your own machine (macOS / Windows / Linux)

This is a different use case from self-hosting on a VPS. That guide covers putting the platform on a public box with a real domain, so it stays online and anyone can deploy to *.yourdomain.com. Use it when you actually want a live, always-on instance.

This page is for trying Dreamer out, developing against it, or demoing it — entirely on your own laptop, no domain, no TLS, no VPS bill.

Prerequisites

  • Docker Desktop (macOS/Windows) or Docker Engine + the Compose plugin (Linux) — https://docs.docker.com/get-docker/
  • Node.js 18+ (only to run the CLI itself — everything Dreamer runs stays inside containers)

Quick start

From the root directory:

node cli/bin/dreamer-local.js up

This will:

  1. Check Docker is installed and running, with OS-specific instructions if not.
  2. Generate .env.local, api-server/.env, and reverse-proxy/.env with random secrets — idempotent, it never overwrites files that already exist.
  3. Build the build-engine image.
  4. Bring up the stack with docker-compose.local.yml.
  5. Run database migrations, retrying while Postgres finishes starting.
  6. Print the dashboard URL and the domain your deployed apps will live under.

Open http://localhost:3000 — the first load is the one-time admin setup screen.

Why no domain setup is needed

Deployed apps still need host-based routing (myapp.<domain>), the same way they do in production. Local mode defaults DOMAIN to localtest.me — a domain whose own DNS records already resolve localtest.me and every subdomain to 127.0.0.1. So http://myapp.localtest.me:8080 reaches your own machine with nothing to configure. Override --domain on up if you'd rather point at a domain you actually control.

What's different from the VPS install

VPS (install.sh)Local (dreamer-local)
Compose filedocker-compose.ymldocker-compose.local.yml
Public edgenginx, ports 80/443, real TLSreverse-proxy on a plain host port (default 8080)
Domainone you control, wildcard DNSlocaltest.me (or any domain, no DNS needed)
Cert renewaldaily cron + certbotnone — no TLS in local mode
AccessSSH tunnel to loopback portsalready on localhost

install.sh and docker-compose.yml are untouched — this is a parallel path, not a replacement.

Other commands

node cli/bin/dreamer-local.js logs [service]   # tail logs
node cli/bin/dreamer-local.js ps               # container status
node cli/bin/dreamer-local.js down             # stop the stack
node cli/bin/dreamer-local.js down --volumes   # stop and wipe all data
node cli/bin/dreamer-local.js doctor           # just check Docker
PreviousSelf-Hosting GuideNextContributing