Self-hosting overview

Run Cadence on your own server.

Cadence is open source. You can run the whole product on a machine you control, with your own database and your own model accounts. No hosted vendor is required for the core product.

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What runs

A Cadence server is a small set of long-running services:

Service	What it does
API	Serves the app and the API, owns sign-in and every rule about who can do what.
Worker	Runs bots, routines and other background jobs.
Web	Serves the web app.
Postgres	Stores everything. Each space’s rows are protected by row-level security.
Caddy	Handles HTTPS on a public server.
Computers	Where bots run commands and a browser. Local Docker containers, or a remote provider.

It is not a static site. The marketing site is separate and is not needed to run the product.

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Pick a layout

Public server

One VM, Docker Compose, automatic HTTPS. The usual choice for a business.

Configuration

The settings you must set, and the optional ones that turn on channels, email and more.

For a local trial from a source checkout, copy .env.example to .env, run pnpm sandbox:build, then pnpm dev, and open the address it prints (http://127.0.0.1:5173 by default).

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Where bot computers run

Provider	SANDBOX_PROVIDER	Notes
Docker on the same machine	docker	The default. Bots share a team computer unless you give one its own.
E2B	e2b	Computers run away from your server. The production Compose file defaults to this.
Daytona	daytona	Remote computers through Daytona.
CreateOS	createos	Remote Linux desktops through CreateOS.
Boat	boat	Managed Linux desktops. Each bot keeps its own Chrome profile.
None	none	Starts the product without computers.

Each remote provider needs its own API key. See Computers for what bots do with them.

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Security basics

• Signing up never grants server administration. Server settings live in the server’s environment, not in the app.
• Keep sign-ups limited with SIGNUP_ALLOWLIST while the server is private.
• Keep ENCRYPTION_KEY safe and unchanged. Stored credentials cannot be read without it.
• Do not expose Postgres or the computer supervisor to the internet. The included Compose files keep them on internal networks.

The full operator guide, with backups, restores, upgrades and hardening, is in docs/self-host.md in the repository.