Docker Deployment

Deploy Context7 On-Premise with Docker Compose

Deploy Context7 On-Premise with Docker Compose. This guide assumes you have completed the On-Premise setup and have a valid license key.

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Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose installed
• Context7 license key

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Registry Authentication

Context7 Enterprise images are hosted on ghcr.io and require authentication. Log in using your license key:

LICENSE_KEY="<your-license-key>"

TOKEN=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $LICENSE_KEY" \
  https://context7.com/api/v1/license/registry-token | jq -r '.token')

docker login ghcr.io -u x-access-token -p $TOKEN

Docker stores these credentials locally. docker compose will use them automatically when pulling the image. You can also pull manually:

docker pull ghcr.io/context7/enterprise:latest

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Docker Compose

Create a docker-compose.yml:

services:
  context7:
    image: ghcr.io/context7/enterprise:latest
    container_name: context7
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"
    volumes:
      - context7-data:/data
    environment:
      - LICENSE_KEY=${LICENSE_KEY}

volumes:
  context7-data:
    driver: local

The context7-data volume is critical. It stores your SQLite database (configuration, credentials, indexed libraries) and all vector embeddings. Without a persistent volume, all data is lost when the container restarts or is recreated. Never run without a volume mount in production.

Create a .env file in the same directory:

LICENSE_KEY=ctx7sk-...

Start the service:

docker compose up -d

Once the container is running, open http://localhost:3000 in your browser to complete the setup wizard.

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Operations

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Updating

If your registry login has expired, re-authenticate first:

LICENSE_KEY="<your-license-key>"

TOKEN=$(curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $LICENSE_KEY" \
  https://context7.com/api/v1/license/registry-token | jq -r '.token')

docker login ghcr.io -u x-access-token -p $TOKEN

Then pull the latest image and restart the container:

docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Data persists in the named Docker volume across updates.

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Health Check

curl http://localhost:3000/api/health

Example response:

{
  "status": "healthy",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "setup": "complete",
  "license": "configured",
  "licenseInfo": {
    "valid": true,
    "teamSize": 10,
    "expiresAt": "2026-06-01T00:00:00.000Z"
  },
  "repos_parsed": 5,
  "uptime": 3600,
  "connectivity": {
    "llm": "configured",
    "llm_provider": "openai",
    "embedding": "configured",
    "embedding_provider": "openai",
    "github": "configured",
    "gitlab": "not configured"
  }
}

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Running as non-root

The container runs as root by default. To run it unprivileged, chown the volume to the UID you want and pass --user:

docker run --rm -v context7-data:/data alpine chown -R 10001:10001 /data

docker run -d --name context7 \
  --user 10001:10001 \
  -v context7-data:/data \
  -e LICENSE_KEY="$LICENSE_KEY" \
  -p 3000:3000 \
  ghcr.io/context7/enterprise:latest

Any UID works. Everything Context7 writes lives under /data, including source clones (/data/repos) and documentation-agent state (/data/home). The only other path it writes is /tmp.

Skip the chown and the server exits at startup with the path it could not write. This requires image 1.3.2 or later. On Kubernetes, use fsGroup instead and the kubelet handles the ownership: see Kubernetes.

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Scaling

The setup above runs a single container with a local volume, which suits most deployments. To run multiple replicas behind a load balancer, move state to an external PostgreSQL (embeddings included, via the pgvector extension), so every replica is stateless and interchangeable. A turnkey multi-replica Compose file (app replicas + Nginx load balancer) ships in the deployment bundle.

See Scaling for the full setup, which also covers migrating an existing single-container deployment.

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Connecting AI Clients

Once deployed, point your MCP clients to your deployment URL. See Connecting Your AI Client for client-specific instructions.