Self-host the whole engine
Free, no account, no licence callback, no telemetry by default. You pay your own providers and your own infrastructure — which is why this is not an “infrastructure is free” claim.
Actions
Actions
- Run local setup
The five steps below run on your machine; CLI mode needs no Docker and no account, and you pay only your own providers.
- Deploy server
Server mode is the compose profile or your own container host; a static CDN alone cannot run generation or hold provider secrets.
- Export from Cloud
Export runs from an authenticated workspace and is available before downgrade or deletion; it refuses credential fields. It needs a running control plane and says so when none answers.
Steps
- 1. Fetch the source
The engine is AGPL-3.0-only. Clone the repository and read the corresponding-source notes in LICENSE.
- 2. Start the stack
docker compose up brings up PostgreSQL 17 and the core API plus worker. Local CLI mode needs no Docker at all.
- 3. Connect a repository
docsloth init writes a schema-valid config; point a local source at a path or a git remote with a scoped token.
- 4. Bring your own model
Set DOCSLOTH_MODEL_BASE_URL, DOCSLOTH_MODEL_API_KEY and the approved model ids. Without them, planning still works deterministically and says so.
- 5. Publish
Publish to the filesystem adapter and serve the output from any static host. Updates need a runner or CI job — a CDN alone cannot maintain content.
What static hosting can and cannot do
- Can: serve published HTML, Markdown, JSON and search to readers without JavaScript.
- Can: run browser-only components.
- Cannot: run generation, watch webhooks or maintain content. That needs a runner — the CI job mode uses the same engine.
- Cannot: hold provider secrets for connected components. Those require a backend or client-owned ephemeral credentials.