Self-host Protobox

Run Protobox on your own infrastructure with Docker Compose, for teams that cannot send data to a hosted SaaS.

Who this is for

If your data cannot leave your own infrastructure, run Protobox yourself. Everything a workspace needs, the platform API, MCP host, database, job queue, and object storage, runs as containers on a machine you control.

What you get

Self-host is a Docker Compose stack, not a managed product. You run it, you patch it, you back it up.

The platform API (agents, tools, knowledge base, memory, sessions)
The MCP host, so Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, or any MCP client can connect to your instance
MongoDB with Atlas Search, Redis, and MinIO (S3-compatible storage) bundled in

What's not included

Hosted billing. There is no Stripe integration or usage cap on self-host. You are not charged, and nothing meters you.
Managed LLM keys. Protobox's hosted plans include managed model access. Self-host does not, you bring your own OpenAI API key. Without one, lexical (keyword) search still works; semantic search, embeddings, and LLM-backed tools do not.
Firebase login for the admin UI. Self-host provisions its first user through a bootstrap script instead of Firebase sign-in. If you want normal email and password login through an admin UI pointed at your instance, you can configure your own Firebase project; it is optional, and everything else (API keys, the MCP host, the SDK, the CLI) works without it.

Prerequisites

Docker and Docker Compose v2
openssl (to generate secrets)
Your own OpenAI API key, for semantic search and LLM-backed tools

Run it

git clone https://github.com/chanl-ai/protobox.git
cd protobox

# Configure: generate secrets, set your OpenAI key
cp deploy/self-host/.env.example deploy/self-host/.env
# edit deploy/self-host/.env, see the file for what each value is for

# Build and start (the first build takes several minutes)
make self-host-up

# Create your first user, workspace, and API key
make self-host-bootstrap

That prints your API key and the MCP host URL. Point any MCP client at http://localhost:4202/api/mcp with the API key, or use @protoboxai/sdk / protobox CLI against http://localhost:4200, the same way you would against hosted Protobox.

make self-host-down            # stop, keep your data
make self-host-down PURGE=1    # stop and delete all data

See deploy/self-host/README.md in the repository for the full port list, environment variables, and how storage and auth are wired for a self-hosted instance.

How it stays compatible with hosted

Self-host runs against the same conformance suite hosted Protobox is graded on before every release, one session per conversation, tool listing, an approval-gated tool call, a knowledge search, and a memory store and recall, all metered and audited the same way. That suite is what make self-host-conformance runs against your own instance.