Self-host

⚠️ The public repository has not shipped yet. The OSS publication (Phase 5) — public GitHub repo, install script, license file in the repo root — is still in progress. Everything below describes how self-hosting works once it lands; today there is nothing public to clone. If you want early access, contact us.

Netdexpert ships under the Functional Source License (FSL-1.1-ALv2) — free to self-host forever, blocks competing SaaS resale, auto-converts to Apache 2.0 two years after each release. Same code as the cloud product; flip NETDEX_MODE to switch between single-tenant and multi-tenant.

Prerequisites

Docker (20.10 or later) + Docker Compose v2
2 GB RAM, 2 GB disk
Ports 8080 (frontend) + 4001 (API) — both configurable
A box you can reach over HTTP — your laptop, a homelab VM, a Hetzner CX11

Path A — one-line install (coming with the OSS publication)

When Phase 5 ships, the canonical install will be a one-line script that pulls a pinned docker-compose.yml + .env.example and runs docker compose up -d. Until then, use Path B.

Path B — clone and `docker compose up`

Once the public repo is live:

git clone <public repo — not yet published>
cd netdexpert
cp .env.example .env
docker compose up --build

Then open localhost:8080. By default this runs in NETDEX_MODE=single — no auth wall, no tenant header, one user. The compose stack bundles a Postgres 17 service (Netdexpert is Postgres-only) plus the API and frontend; nothing else to provision.

To switch to multi-tenant mode (matches the cloud product):

# in .env
NETDEX_MODE=multi
FORGE_TOKEN_SECRET=<openssl rand -hex 32>
FORGE_ENCRYPTION_KEY=<openssl rand -hex 32>
# optional: point at managed Postgres instead of the bundled service
# DATABASE_URL=postgresql+psycopg://…

Volumes + backup

Two named Docker volumes hold all state:

netdex_pgdata — the Postgres database
netdex_data — file uploads (/data/storage)

Back up with docker exec netdex-postgres pg_dump -U netdex netdex > backup.sql plus an rsync of the uploads volume. For managed-Postgres deployments, use your provider’s PITR (Neon has it built in; AWS RDS has automated backups).

License

FSL-1.1-ALv2. You can:

Run Netdexpert for your own internal use, forever, free.
Modify the source, fork it, run patched versions internally.
Build features on top of it for your team.

You cannot offer Netdexpert (or a derivative) as a paid hosted service that competes with our cloud product, until the auto-conversion clock runs out — two years after each release, that release converts to Apache 2.0 and the restriction lifts.

Next steps