# Requirements (/docs/guides/self-hosting/requirements)



There are two ways to run RyTask. Most people should use Docker — it brings up everything
in one command, already migrated and seeded. Running from source is for development.

## The Docker route (recommended) [#the-docker-route-recommended]

You need:

| Requirement                           | Notes                                                                                                                  |
| ------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Docker Engine with the Compose plugin | `docker compose version` should work. Docker Desktop and OrbStack both include it.                                     |
| \~2 GB of RAM for the stack           | Comfortable for the whole stack — Postgres, Redis, API, worker, web app, and the dev extras. A small team fits easily. |
| x86\_64 or arm64                      | The images build and run on both, including Apple Silicon and ARM cloud machines.                                      |
| Disk space for your data              | Your data lives in a named Postgres volume. Start with a few GB and watch it grow with use.                            |

That is the whole list. You do not need Node, pnpm, or a database installed on the host —
the images contain everything, and `docker compose up -d --build` builds them locally from
the source you cloned.

## The source route (development) [#the-source-route-development]

If you want to hack on RyTask itself, run it from source:

| Requirement         | Notes                                                                                                        |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Node.js 22 or newer | The repo pins `engines.node >= 22`; the Docker images use Node 22 too.                                       |
| pnpm 9              | Pinned via `packageManager` (`pnpm@9.15.9`). With corepack enabled, the right version is used automatically. |
| PostgreSQL 16       | All durable data. `docker compose up -d postgres` is an easy way to get one.                                 |
| Redis 7             | Queues, rate limiting, and the idempotency cache. Also easy to run from the compose file.                    |

Copy `.env.example` to `.env` and adjust the connection strings if your Postgres or Redis
are not on the default local ports.

## What each service is for [#what-each-service-is-for]

Whichever route you take, this is what is actually running:

| Service    | What it does                                                                                                                     |
| ---------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `web`      | The Next.js web app your team uses, on port 3000.                                                                                |
| `api`      | The NestJS HTTP API, on port 3001. Everything — the web app, the Slack integration, the MCP server — talks to RyTask through it. |
| `worker`   | Background jobs. The same image as `api`, started with `WORKER=1`. Processes Slack captures and notification jobs.               |
| `migrate`  | A one-shot job that runs database migrations and the seed, then exits. Re-runs safely on every start.                            |
| `postgres` | PostgreSQL 16. The single source of truth — this is what you back up.                                                            |
| `redis`    | Redis 7. Job queues, rate-limit counters, and the idempotency cache. Nothing durable lives here.                                 |
| `minio`    | S3-compatible object storage, reserved for attachments <StatusBadge status="coming-soon" />. Nothing writes to it yet.           |
| `mailhog`  | A development mail catcher. See [Storage & email](/docs/guides/self-hosting/storage-and-email) for the honest state of email.    |

## Browser support [#browser-support]

RyTask supports current versions of the evergreen browsers — Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari.

## Next step [#next-step]

Ready to go? Follow the [production setup walkthrough](/docs/guides/self-hosting/production),
or try the [quickstart](/docs/tutorials/quickstart) first on your own machine.