Docker

Q: Can I customize the PostgreSQL credentials?

Yes. The docker-compose.prod.yml uses environment variable defaults: POSTGRES_USER (default: postgres), POSTGRES_PASSWORD (default: postgres), POSTGRES_DB (default: simstudio), and POSTGRES_PORT (default: 5432). Set these in your .env file to override them.

Quick Start

# Clone and start
git clone https://github.com/simstudioai/sim.git && cd sim
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

Open http://localhost:3000

Production Setup

1. Configure Environment

# Generate secrets
cat > .env << EOF
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://postgres:postgres@db:5432/simstudio
BETTER_AUTH_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
ENCRYPTION_KEY=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
INTERNAL_API_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL=https://sim.yourdomain.com
BETTER_AUTH_URL=https://sim.yourdomain.com
NEXT_PUBLIC_SOCKET_URL=https://sim.yourdomain.com
EOF

2. Start Services

docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

3. Set Up SSL

Caddy automatically handles SSL certificates.

# Install Caddy
sudo apt install -y debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring apt-transport-https curl
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/gpg.key' | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/caddy-stable-archive-keyring.gpg
curl -1sLf 'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/caddy/stable/debian.deb.txt' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/caddy-stable.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install caddy

Create /etc/caddy/Caddyfile:

sim.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:3000

    handle /socket.io/* {
        reverse_proxy localhost:3002
    }
}

sudo systemctl restart caddy

# Install
sudo apt install nginx certbot python3-certbot-nginx -y

# Create /etc/nginx/sites-available/sim
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name sim.yourdomain.com;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3000;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection 'upgrade';
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }

    location /socket.io/ {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3002;
        proxy_http_version 1.1;
        proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
        proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";
    }
}

# Enable and get certificate
sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/sim /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
sudo certbot --nginx -d sim.yourdomain.com

Ollama

# With GPU
docker compose -f docker-compose.ollama.yml --profile gpu --profile setup up -d

# CPU only
docker compose -f docker-compose.ollama.yml --profile cpu --profile setup up -d

Pull additional models:

docker compose -f docker-compose.ollama.yml exec ollama ollama pull llama3.2

External Ollama

If Ollama runs on your host machine (not in Docker):

# macOS/Windows
OLLAMA_URL=http://host.docker.internal:11434 docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

# Linux - use your host IP
OLLAMA_URL=http://192.168.1.100:11434 docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

Inside Docker, localhost refers to the container, not your host. Use host.docker.internal or your host's IP.

Commands

# View logs
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml logs -f simstudio

# Stop
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml down

# Update
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml pull && docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d

# Backup database
docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml exec db pg_dump -U postgres simstudio > backup.sql

Common Questions

Four services are started: simstudio (main app on port 3000, 8 GB memory limit), realtime (WebSocket server on port 3002, 1 GB memory limit), db (PostgreSQL 17 with pgvector on port 5432), and migrations (runs once to apply database schema changes, then exits).

You can use either Caddy (recommended, handles certificates automatically) or Nginx with Certbot. Both need to reverse-proxy port 3000 for the main app and port 3002 for WebSocket connections at the /socket.io/ path.

Inside a Docker container, localhost refers to the container itself, not your host machine. On macOS and Windows, use http://host.docker.internal:11434. On Linux, use your host machine's actual IP address (e.g., http://192.168.1.100:11434).

The GPU profile (--profile gpu) configures NVIDIA driver capabilities and reserves GPU devices for accelerated inference. The CPU profile (--profile cpu) runs Ollama without GPU acceleration. Both use the --profile setup flag to automatically pull the gemma3:4b starter model.

Run docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml pull to fetch the latest images, then docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml up -d to restart with the new versions. The migrations container will automatically apply any new database schema changes on startup.

Back up with: docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml exec db pg_dump -U postgres simstudio > backup.sql. Restore with: docker compose -f docker-compose.prod.yml exec -T db psql -U postgres simstudio < backup.sql. The database data is persisted in a Docker volume named postgres_data.

Yes. The docker-compose.prod.yml uses environment variable defaults: POSTGRES_USER (default: postgres), POSTGRES_PASSWORD (default: postgres), POSTGRES_DB (default: simstudio), and POSTGRES_PORT (default: 5432). Set these in your .env file to override them.

Docker

Common Questions

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