THE ARTIFACTBIN WORKSHOP / COMPANY SETUP

Set up Artifactbin for your company.

This guide walks you through running Artifactbin locally or hosting it on your own server. Prefer a hassle-free setup? Choose Cloud and we’ll handle the hosting.

Local setup Cloud

HUMANS + AGENTSA PLACE TO WORK TOGETHER

Choose your setup

Work on your own, host a workspace for your team, or let us handle the hosting.

Compare Artifactbin setups
Compare	Local computer	Self-hosted company server	Cloud
Use case	Single-player mode. Personal work and trying things out on your own computer.	Your team, your infrastructure. A shared workspace that your company runs.	Your team, hosted by us. Collaborate without running a server.
Agents	Your agent on the same computer, using HTTP or the afbin CLI.	Your team’s agents, using HTTP or the afbin CLI with access to your server.	Bring your own agents. Connect over HTTP or use the afbin CLI.
Hosting	Runs on your computer. Node.js 22.13+ and the afbin CLI.	Your Linux server with Docker and Node.js. Start with 2 vCPU and 4 GiB RAM.	We run the server. No infrastructure to set up.
Database	PGLite is included.	PostgreSQL is included in the Docker bundle. No separate database service to provision.	Managed for you.
Login	Read codes from the local outbox.	An SMTP provider or Resend, or Google or OIDC sign-in.	Sign in to your hosted workspace.
Address	The local URL printed at startup. Only accessible on your computer.	Your domain, with DNS and HTTPS configured by your team.	A hosted workspace URL.
Storage	A persistent data directory on your computer.	Your persistent disk and off-server backups.	Stored with the hosted service.

Which server tools and versions?

The Docker bundle needs Docker Engine, Compose 2.30+, Buildx 0.17+, Node.js 22.13+, tar and flock. See the deployment guide for installation and configuration.

You don’t need to run your own mail server. Use an SMTP provider or Resend for emailed codes; Google/OIDC works without email delivery. Public hosts cannot use the local login-code outbox.

02 / START SMALL

Start a server in one command

Install afbin, open a new terminal, and replace the example email with yours:

Start a local company server

afbin serve --dir ./artifactbin-data --owner-email owner@example.com --port 7445

No separate database or SMTP service is needed. Keep the terminal running, open the printed URL, and read your login code where startup tells you. Sign in as the owner and confirm a company group.

To connect your CLI, open another terminal:

Connect to the local server

afbin config set host http://app.lvh.me:7445
afbin auth

Restart with the same --dir to keep your data. This address works on your computer only. Use the exact printed origin for login and approval: changing it to localhost can cause approval_origin_mismatch.

Prefer your own database? afbin serve also accepts --db-url postgres://…. PostgreSQL is optional when running it directly.

03 / BRING YOUR TEAM

Make it a company server

Use the Docker Compose bundle to run Artifactbin, PostgreSQL and HTTPS on your Linux server.

Prepare your domain and login. Point the app and document DNS names at your server. Configure an email provider or Google/OIDC and Caddy’s DNS module for wildcard HTTPS.
Initialize and start. Copy deploy/company from the source repository. Follow its guide to supply settings, run node init.mjs ., then build and start with docker compose up -d --build. Keep ports 80/443 public and app/database ports private.
Confirm your company. Open the HTTPS URL, sign in with the configured owner email, create or select an editor group, and confirm deployment setup.
Invite your team. Invite colleagues to that group as editors or viewers before they sign in. Company admission is invite-only by default; invited emails must also match your allowed email patterns.

Which DNS names do I need?

Example DNS names

company.example.com
pages.company.example.com
*.pages.company.example.com

Keep app and document hosts on the same site. Wildcard certificates require your DNS provider’s Caddy module.

Connect each colleague’s agent

Use the group’s Copy agent setup instructions on each colleague’s computer. This is the command format; replace the version, hostname and handle with your deployment’s values:

Connect a colleague’s CLI

npx --yes @afbin/cli@<server-version> setup --server https://company.example.com --group <company-handle> --set-default

Everyone signs in as themselves. New publications go to their selected group; existing personal documents stay where they are.

Access: group editors create and edit; viewers read. A document share does not admit someone to your company. Datasets and images are unlisted—anyone with the ID can read them without login.