Self-Host a Cove — Lucid Cove

YOU RUN IT

Self-host

Run the open-source Cove on your own hardware. Full sovereignty, no monthly hosting. The steps are right below.

↓ You're here

WE RUN IT

Host it for you

Same Cove, same software — we stand it up and keep it running. Buy it, name it, claim it. Nothing to install.

It's the same Cove either way. Hosting just decides whose machine it runs on — the software, your data ownership, and how it works are identical. Below is the self-host path.

BEFORE YOU START

Docker + Docker Compose v2 (the docker compose plugin — Docker Desktop includes it)
curl and lsof (the installer checks for them; most systems already have them)
A model provider — a local Ollama (no key, fully self-hosted, recommended) or an API key (OpenRouter, Google, Groq, Moonshot)
~15 GB free disk for the first run (app, Nextcloud, Matrix, and voice-model images), plus room for your data
Ports 80 and 443 free — a shared Caddy uses them for HTTPS
Optional: a domain you control, or claim a free lucidcove.org subdomain in the wizard

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The one-command way

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LucidPrinciples/lucid-cove/main/install.sh | bash

This checks Docker, downloads Lucid Cove, generates a fresh Cove from scratch, and starts it — then prints a claim link. Open the link and finish in your browser: confirm your name and @handle, set your address, add your model, and put jules on your phone. Nothing to hand-edit. Once you're in, skip to Going Further.

Or, step by step

Same result, more control — this is exactly what the one-command installer does.

Clone

git clone https://github.com/LucidPrinciples/lucid-cove.git
cd lucid-cove

The repo is the shared base — one generic image, all behavior from config. You won't edit the code.

Write your config

cp provision/cove.config.example.yaml cove.config.yaml

Open cove.config.yaml and set the essentials: cove.id + cove.name, your operator.name + operator.handle, team: on (steward + build team) or off (just you + your agent), and your model_providers. Set cove.domain only if you'll run behind a domain — leave it blank to set an address in the wizard. One line is required for a manual install: set deploy.lucid_cove_path to this folder's full path (run pwd inside the clone to get it) so the generated stack knows where to mount the code. Everything else has sane defaults.

You arrived through 's invite. Add this to your cove.config.yaml so they get credit when your Cove joins the network:

Generate and start

python3 provision/centralized.py cove.config.yaml --output ./out
cd out/<your-id>-cove && docker compose up -d --build

The provisioner builds your whole stack — the app, Postgres, Nextcloud, Redis, your own Matrix homeserver, CPU voice (jules), and, with a domain, a bundled Caddy for HTTPS — and prints your claim link.

Claim it in the browser

# the provisioner prints this — open it
http://localhost:8200/p/<token>
# or, with a domain
https://your-domain/p/<token>

The wizard confirms you (name + @handle, locked), sets your address, switches on your agent when you add a model, and gets jules on your phone with a one-time mesh code. Then you're in Mission Control: chat, voice capture, files, and your daily tuning. Watch the logs anytime with docker compose logs -f app.

Going Further

A domain + HTTPS. Set cove.domain in your config and the provisioner bundles Caddy and gets certs automatically. Behind NAT? Add a dns.provider: cloudflare token for DNS-01 so HTTPS works without opening ports.
Family. With team: on you get the steward and the full build team. Add family members as Presences from the admin view — each gets their own operator + agent, all in the one stack.
The Lucid Tuning Protocol. Your Cove subscribes to the public daily Drop at drop.lucidprinciples.com. Set ltp.kb_public_key to verify the canonical Knowledge Base; leave ltp.dry_run: true until you're ready to run tunings.
Local models. Ollama on the host is detected automatically (host.docker.internal); set compute.ollama_url to point somewhere else.

The container carries no source — cove-core is mounted from the repo at runtime and merged into the app, so you update by pulling the repo and recreating the container. This is pre-release software (v1.0.0) — expect rough edges. Code is Apache 2.0; the Canon framework content is CC BY 4.0. Full guide: QUICKSTART.md.

Rather Not Run a Server?

Same Cove, none of the setup. We provision it, route it, and keep it running — you just name it and claim it. Your data ownership and the software are identical to self-hosting.

HOST IT FOR ME VIEW THE REPO

Self-Host Your Cove